The Legislative Branch of Government Diana L. Drew Civics & Economics 2005.
The Legislative Branch of Government
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Transcript of The Legislative Branch of Government
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The Legislative Branch of
Government
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What do they do?
• The main job of the Legislative Branch is to make laws
• This is a long process done with the assistance of the other branches of government
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Who are they?
• The Congress is the legislative branch for the United States government
• Congress is a bicameral, or 2-house legislature. Its two houses are the Senate and the House of Representatives
• Do you remember why a bicameral was created at the Constitutional Convention?
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Why Bicameral?
• The 2 house system was set up to please both the large and small states
• In one (The Senate) representation is equal, in the other (House of Representatives) it is based on population
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The House of Representatives• This is the “lower”
house• Each state gets
representation based on population
• The states have from 1-53 members of the house, based on their relative size
• The numbers are adjusted every 10 years, after the census
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Changing House
• Originally, the House had 65 members
• Each state got a representative for every 30,000 residents
• Why did they change?
• How many representatives would there be now, with the U.S. population over 290 million? 9667
• Virginia Beach alone would have about 14!
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The Modern House• The House now has 435
members, spread over 50 states. It breaks down to about 1 representative for every 646,952 people
• Virginia has 11 representatives
• California has the most (53), Texas has 32 and New York 29
• Wyoming, Montana, Delaware, Vermont and Alaska each get only 1 as they have the lowest populations
•
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The People’s House?
• Of its 435 members, 352 are men, 81 are women
• 233 are Republicans,200 are Democrats There are two vacancies.
• 346 are white, 44 are African-Americans, 31 are Hispanic-Americans, 12 are Asian-Americans
• The average age of the Representatives is 58 years old
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Who’s in the House
• The House of Representatives has 435 members
• They are all elected every 2 years
• The “Speaker of the House” is elected by the Representatives to be the leader of the House
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Help Wanted: Legislator
• To be a member of the House of representatives the Constitution requires only 3 things
• You must be at least 25 years old
• Be a United States citizen for at least 7 years
• Live in the state you are representing
• The job pays $174,000 a year
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Who represents you?• Scott Ridgell represents the
2nd district of Virginia, which includes all of Virginia Beach
• You are one of his constituents, or people who live in a district
• There are 10 other districts in the state
• The borders of the districts are adjusted every 10 years
• Sometimes districts are adjusted in unusual ways to benefit a particular political party. This is called gerrymandering
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Virginia’s Congressional DistrictsDo you see any gerrymandering?
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The Senate• The Senate is the
“upper house” of Congress
• Each state gets 2 Senators, regardless of size
• California and Delaware get the same number.
• How many Senators were there originally? How many are there now?
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Senate Statistics
• There are a total of 100 Senators
• Each Senator serves a 6 year term
• Each Senator represents an entire state, they do not divide it like the House
• The Senate is led by the Vice-President of the United States. His title is “President of the Senate”. He can only vote when there is a tie
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President Pro Tempore
• In reality, the Vice President rarely attends the Senate
• When the Vice President is absent, the President Pro Tempore leads the Senate
• The member of the majority party with the most experience serves as President Pro Tempore
• Patrick Leahy of VT currently holds this office.
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Who wants to be a Senator?
• The Constitution requires the following:
• At least 30 years old• Citizen of the U.S. for
at least 9 years• Resident of the state
you represent• Senators make
$174,000 a year
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Who’s in the Senate• There are currently 53
Democrats, 45 Republicans, and 2 Independents in the Senate.
• In Ancient Rome, the Senate was called the “assembly of old men”
• That is semi-accurate today• The average age in the Senate
is 63 years old• There are 80 men and 20
women in the Senate• 96 are white, 2 Hispanic-
Americans and 1 Asian-American and 1 African- American.
• Only 7 African-Americans have ever served in the history of the Senate
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Virginia’s Senators• Mark Warner and Tim
Kaine are the Senators from Virginia
• Warner is up for re-election in 2014
• Kaine in 2018
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Benefits of being in Congress• Members of both
houses get many benefits
• They can take free trips• The “franking privilege”
allows them to send free mail
• They get free office space and even have a private subway to take them to the Capitol
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State Legislative Branch
• The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative branch for state government
• It is also bicameral, made up of the House of Delegates and the Senate
• It meets at the state Capitol in Richmond
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Our State Representatives Barry Knight Jeff McWaters
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Local Legislative Branch
• The City Council is the legislative branch for our local government
• It is led by the Mayor and City Manager
• In Virginia’s counties there is a Board of Supervisors instead of City Council