legislative branch

What is a bill?

A bill is a suggested law.

Where do the ideas for bills come from

Citizens, interest groups, (Ex: environmental group, M.A.D.D), state legislatures, and the President

Where dose congress work?

Congress works in the U.S. capitol Building in Washington D.C.

What are the senate and house of representative known as together?

Congress. Congress is bicameral, which means it is made up of two chambers/parts

Senate

Each state has two senators. So there are 100 senators. Each state has the same for senators.

Why is it easier to get a bill passed in the House, as opposed to the Senate?

It is easier to get a bill passed in the House because the minority of Representatives that disagree with the bill have little change of changing

House of representatives

Made up of 435 elected members, which is based on the population of each state. Bigger the state = more representatives in the congress of that state. Ex: California has 53 representatives because it has the largest population of all the states. North Dakota only one has 1 representative because so few people live there.

WHICH chamber has more power

Nether. The senate and the house of representatives both make laws. When the house approves law, the senate has to approve it too, likewise when the senate approves a possible law, the house has to approve it too.

Who can introduce a bill?

Only a representative or senator.

Why do we have a senate AND a house of representatives?

The Founders of our country made the house and the senate different for a reason because they wanted them to have checks and balances on each other

How does the house of representatives know how many people live in each state?

The U.S. census, which is a population count. It is taken every 10 years.

Our federal government is made up of three branches. What are they?

1) Legislative branch to make laws. Congress creates laws for our whole country. 2) Executive branch to enforce laws. The President approves the laws Congress creates. 3) Judicial branch to interpret laws. They decide if the laws created by Congress are unconstitutional- go against the Constitution.

Besides making laws what does other powers dose the Senate have?

Approves the president's choices for: -federal judges -ambassadors (a person represents the united states in another country) -cabinet members (people who head several departments like the Department of Defense)

What does the house do?

The house can act quickly to pass bills that the majority of representatives want to have passed

The legislative branch is divided into two parts. What are they?

The senate and the house of Representatives

What does the Senate do?

The senate works slowly. They discuss each part of bill in detail and the minority has more of say and can make changes to a bill.

What are the checks and balances?

What are the checks and balances? One branch of gov't or one chamber of congress checks on the other so that one is not more powerful the other.