You are a member of the House of Representatives, and you’ve just been chosen to be on the Ways and Means Committee. You come home and tell your family, and they look at you with blank stares. “So what does that mean?” they ask. Explain the privileges, restrictions, and duties of sitting on the Ways and Means Committee.
Answers
The Ways and Means Committee is generally considered as the strongest joint committee in the Congress.
Its decision and power are very much significant and important.
A member of the Ways and Means Committee never serves other committees without prior permission.
There are many responsibilities which must executed by the representatives of the Committee.
It has the full control over the tariffs and taxes.
Answer:
Through legislative debate and compromise, the U.S. Congress makes laws that influence our daily lives. It holds hearings to inform the legislative process, conducts investigations to oversee the executive branch, and serves as the voice of the people and the states in the federal government.
What Congress Does
Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government that represents the American people and makes the nation's laws. It shares power with the executive branch, led by the president, and the judicial branch, whose highest body is the Supreme Court of the United States. Of the three branches of government, Congress is the only one elected directly by the people.
Article I—the longest article of the Constitution—describes congressional powers. Congress has the power to:
Make laws
Declare war
Raise and provide public money and oversee its proper expenditure
Impeach and try federal officers
Approve presidential appointments
Approve treaties negotiated by the executive branch
Oversight and investigations
Two Bodies, One Branch
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
— The Constitution, Article I Section I - The Legislature
Congress is divided into two institutions: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The two houses of Congress have equal but unique roles in the federal government. While they share legislative responsibilities, each house also has special constitutional duties and powers.
To balance the interests of both the small and large states, the Framers of the Constitution divided the power of Congress between the two houses. Every state has an equal voice in the Senate, while representation in the House of Representatives is based on the size of each state’s population.
Known as the Great (or Connecticut) Compromise, this plan for representation in Congress was introduced by Connecticut delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth.
Making Laws
There are many different ways, both simple and complex, in which a bill becomes law. One way in which this happens is:
A member of Congress introduces a bill into his or her legislative chamber.
The presiding officer of that chamber refers the proposed legislation to one or more committees, depending on its subject.
Committee members review the bill and decide whether to hold public hearings, to combine it with related draft legislation, to propose amendments, to recommend that the chamber in which it was introduced consider it favorably, or to set it aside for possible later review.
If the committee, or committees, return the bill to the chamber of the body in which it was introduced, members debate the measure and may consider further amendments.
The bill is then considered by the full chamber. If it passes, the measure is referred to the other chamber, where this process begins anew.
When a majority in the House, and in the Senate, agree the bill should become law, it is signed and sent to the president.
The president may sign the act of Congress into law, or he may veto it.
Congress can then override the president's veto by a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate thereby making the vetoed act a law.
The U.S. House of Representatives
“The U.S. House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.”
—The Constitution, Article 1, Section 2
James Madison, a key architect of the Constitution, described the U.S. House of Representatives as a legislative body with “an immediate dependence on, and intimate sympathy with, the people.” From the House’s inception, Representatives have been elected directly by the people. Further, the constitutional requirement that Representatives must stand for election every two years has defined the House as an institution that is responsive to the will of the people and that serves as a forum for their political priorities.
The House is the larger of Congress’s two legislative bodies. Its membership is based on the population of each individual state. By law, its current membership is set at 435 Representatives, plus nonvoting delegates from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories. The House possesses the sole authority to impeach federal officials and, in the case of indecisive Electoral College results, to elect a president. While revenue and spending bills traditionally originate in the House, the Senate may amend them as with any other piece of legislation.
Criteria for Being a Representative
Must be a minimum of 25 years of age
Must be a citizen for 7 years
Must be a resident of the state represented at the time of election
The U.S. Senate
Must be a resident of the state represented at the time of election
Explanation: