Congress of the United States

The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. Both representatives and senators are directly elected by the people, but in some states the governor may appoint a temporary replacement when a Senate seat is vacant.

References

• Baker, Ross K. (2000). House and Senate, 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton.
• Berg-Andersson, Richard E. (2001). Explanation of the types of Sessions of Congress
• Berman, Daniel M. (1964). In Congress Assembled: The Legislative Process in the National Government. London: The Macmillan Company.
• Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek. (1998). Congress and Its Members, 6th ed. Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly.
• Herrick, Rebekah. (2001). "Gender effects on job satisfaction in the House of Representatives." Women and Politics, 23 (4), 85–98.
• Hunt, Richard. (1998). "Using the Records of Congress in the Classroom," OAH Magazine of History, 12 (Summer): 34–37.
• Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, David Johnson, and Elissa Haney. (2005). "Famous Firsts by American Women." Infoplease.
• Lee, Frances and Bruce Oppenheimer. (1999). Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
• Rimmerman, Craig A. (1990). "Teaching Legislative Politics and Policy Making." Political Science Teacher, 3 (Winter): 16–18.
• Ritchie, Donald A. (1997). "What Makes a Successful Congressional Investigation." OAH Magazine of History, 11 (Spring): 6–8.
• Story, Joseph. (1891). Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. (2 vols). Boston: Brown & Little.
• Wilson, Woodrow. (1885). Congressional Government. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• Some information in this article has been provided by the Senate Historical Office.