To convict an impeached official requires the vote of two-thirds of the Senators present and voting. The Senate has the exclusive constitutional power, by a two-thirds majority of the Senators present and voting, to authorize the President to ratify a treaty that has been negociated on behalf of the United States.
If legislation is required to implement a treaty that the President has ratified after receiving the advice and consent of the Senate, both houses of Congress must approve that legislation. The Senate also has the exclusive constitutional power to confirm, by simple majority vote, the nomination of persons whom the President has nominated to high executive and judicial positions, including cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, and federal judges. The House of Representatives is not involved in the confirmation of nominations.
The Senate, like the House of Representatives, may establish special investigative committees. In addition, the standing committees of the Senate are authorized to conduct investigations of matters within their respective jurisdictions. Standing and special investigative committees have the authority to issue subpoenas that require a person to appear before the committee and, if necessary, to produce documents.
A constitutional amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress, or the legislatures of two-thirds of the States may call for a convention to propose constitutional amendments. To become part of the Constitution, an amendment that has been proposed must be ratified by the legislatures or special conventions in three-fourths of the States. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, and makes the President the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
Since then, the armed forces of the United States have become engaged in hostilities without a formal declaration of war. On some occasions, Congress has expressed its support by other legislative actions. On other occasions, the President has acted in his capacity as Commander-in-chief. The candidate who receives a majority of the electoral votes cast is elected President of the United States. If no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from among the three candidates who received the greatest number of electoral votes.
In voting for the President, members of the House of Representatives vote as State delegations, with each delegation having one vote.
The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in , authorizes the Vice-President and a majority of the Cabinet secretaties to declare that the President is unable to perform the duties of thar office. The Vice President then serves as the Acting President. If the President notifies Congress that he or she is not disabled, the President resumes the powers and duties of the office unless Congress, by a two-thirds vote of each house, agrees with a determination made by the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet secretaries that the President remains disabled.
Term of office: The term of office for a Senator is six years. How many members of Congress are there? There are a total of Members of Congress. Senate and serve in the U. Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year. How many members of Congress come from each state? Each state sends two Senators to represent their state in the U.
For example, smaller states like Vermont and Delaware have one representative while large states like California have 53 representatives.
Currently, the Michigan Congressional Delegation is composed of 14 representatives in the House and two Senators in the U. How many people do congressmen and senators represent? Members of the U. House of Representatives each represent a portion of their state known as a Congressional District, which averages , people. Senators however, represent the entire state. How do the House and Senate chambers differ? In the House of Representatives, the majority party holds significant power to draft chamber rules and schedule bills to reach the floor for debate and voting.
In most cases, House rules will limit debate so that important legislation can be passed during one legislative business day. Senators have two options when they seek to vote on a measure or motion. If no objection is heard, the Senate proceeds to a vote.
One involves nominations to executive branch positions and federal judgeships on which, thanks to two procedural changes adopted in and , only a simple majority is required to end debate. A second includes certain types of legislation for which Congress has previously written into law special procedures that limit the amount time for debate. Because there is a specified amount of time for debate in these cases, there is no need to use cloture to cut off debate.
Perhaps the best known and most consequential example of these are special budget rules, known as the budget reconciliation process, that allow a simple majority to adopt certain bills addressing entitlement spending and revenue provisions, thereby prohibiting a filibuster. The most straightforward way to eliminate the filibuster would be to formally change the text of Senate Rule 22 , the cloture rule that requires 60 votes to end debate on legislation.
Absent a large, bipartisan Senate majority that favors curtailing the right to debate, a formal change in Rule 22 is extremely unlikely. A more complicated, but more likely, way to ban the filibuster would be to create a new Senate precedent.
The nuclear option leverages the fact that a new precedent can be created by a senator raising a point of order, or claiming that a Senate rule is being violated. If the presiding officer typically a member of the Senate agrees, that ruling establishes a new precedent.
If the presiding officer disagrees, another senator can appeal the ruling of the chair. In both and , the Senate used this approach to reduce the number of votes needed to end debate on nominations.
The majority leader used two non-debatable motions to bring up the relevant nominations, and then raised a point of order that the vote on cloture is by majority vote. The presiding officer ruled against the point of order, but his ruling was overturned on appeal—which, again, required only a majority in support.
In sum, by following the right steps in a particular parliamentary circumstance, a simple majority of senators can establish a new interpretation of a Senate rule. The Senate could also move to weaken the filibuster without eliminating it entirely. For example, a Senate majority could prevent senators from filibustering the motion used to call up a bill to start known as the motion to proceed.
A second option targets the so-called Byrd Rule, a feature of the budget reconciliation process. These bills have been critical to the enactment of major policy changes including, recently, the Affordable Care Act in and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in To guard against a majority stuffing a reconciliation measure with non-budgetary provisions, the Byrd Rule limits the contents of the bill and requires 60 votes to set aside.
This approach would weaken the filibuster by making it easier for a majority party to squeeze more of its priorities into a reconciliation bill which then only requires a simple majority to pass.
Alternatively, the senator presiding over the chamber or the vice president, if he or she is performing that function could disregard the advice provided to him or her by the parliamentarian, undercutting the efficacy of the Byrd Rule. By winning majorities in both houses of Congress and the White House, Democrats have achieved one necessary condition for filibuster reform: unified party control of Washington.
But the filibuster could still survive unified party control.
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