2024年5月6日发(作者：win7格式化系统恢复出厂)

美国国会名词解释

Congress of the United States, the legislative branch of the

federal government, instituted (1789) by Article 1 of the

Constitution of the United States, which prescribes its

membership and defines its powers. Congress is composed of

two houses-the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Senate

The senators, two from each state, have six-year terms and

were chosen by the state legislatures until 1913, when the

Seventeenth Amendment, providing for their direct popular

election, went into effect. Actually, many states, especially in the

West, had already in effect adopted this reform through the use

of the direct primary. The terms of one third of the senators

expire every two years. A senator must be at least 30 years old, a

U.S. citizen of not less than nine years standing, and a resident of

the state in which he or she is elected. The Senate is presided

over by the vice president of the United States, who has no part

in its deliberations and may vote only in case of a tie; in his

absence his duties are assumed by a president pro tempore,

elected by the Senate.

The House of Representatives

Members of the House of Representatives are apportioned

among the states according to their populations in the federal

census. Every state is entitled to at least one representative.

States that are entitled only to one (currently Alaska, Delaware,

Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming)

have a representative at large, i.e., one elected by the whole state.

The legislatures of those states entitled to more than one

representative have been required since 1842 to divide their

states into congressional districts. Representatives are chosen for

two-year terms, and the entire body comes up for reelection

every two years. A representative must be 25 or older, a U.S.

citizen of at least seven years standing, and a resident of the state

in which he or she is elected. Although without a vote (except on

the committees on which they serve), one resident commissioner

from Puerto Rico (elected for a four-year term) and one delegate

each from the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the

Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (elected for

two-year terms) sit in the House. The presiding officer of the

House, the speaker, is elected by the members of the House and

may designate any member of the House to act in his absence.

In 1910 a revolt against the powerful speaker, Joseph Gurney

Cannon, resulted in the transfer of much of the power and

influence of that office to the House committees. The reforms of

the mid-1970s, however, modified seniority rules and gave

committee members and the speaker more powers, and changes

introduced in the mid-1990s by the Republicans further reduced

the influence of seniority and concentrated more power in the

speaker and other members of the majority leadership.

Responsibilities of Congress

The most important responsibility of Congress is that of

making the laws of the United States. In both houses the work of

preparing and considering legislation is done by standing

committees, and in addition there are special committees in each

house as well as joint committees with bicameral membership.

The two houses have an equal voice in legislation, but revenue

bills must originate in the House of Representatives. Bills, after

having been passed by each house separately, must be signed by

the president of the United States within 10 days of their

submission, or they become law automatically, unless Congress

is not in session. If vetoed by the president, a bill may become

law only by its repassage by a two-thirds majority in each house.

The Constitution requires a regular annual meeting of Congress,

which, since the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933,

begins on Jan. 3 each year. The president may call an extra

session of Congress or of either house. The proceedings of each

house are recorded in the

Congressional Record.

Only the House of Representatives may impeach the

president or other federal officers and the Senate alone has the

authority to try impeachments, but each house is the judge of

the qualifications of its own members. The Senate must ratify all

treaties by a two-thirds vote and confirm important presidential

appointments to office, including cabinet members, judges of

federal courts, and high-ranking officers of the armed forces.

Because of this and because it is the smaller body and its

members enjoy longer terms of office and virtually unlimited

debate, the Senate is regarded as the more powerful of the two

houses.

Congress, as a whole, reached the zenith of its power during

Reconstruction. Throughout its history many critics have charged

that Congress operates under antiquated machinery and

processes that are inadequate. Procedural reforms proposed

have included the adoption of a rule of relevancy in Senate

debate, employing joint hearings on similar bills, liberalizing the

methods by which a bill may be discharged from committee for

consideration, and abolishing seniority as the basis for

committee chairmanships.

Bibliography

See R. Dadson,

The Role of the Congressman

(1969); N. W.

Polsby,

Congress and the Presidency

(2d ed. 1971); L. Fisher,

President and Congress

(1972); A. Clausen,

How Congressmen

Decide

(1973); J. Kingdon,

Congressmen's Voting Decisions

(1973); R. Goehlert and J. Sayre,

The United States Congress

(1981); J. L. Sundquist,

The Decline and Resurgence of Congress

(1981); M. A. Peterson,

Legislating Together: The White House

and Capitol Hill From Eisenhower to Reagan

(1990); D. R. Mayhew,

Divided We Govern

(1991).