Structure and Organization of Congress

TERMS AND SESSIONS

*A term is the meeting period of Congress.*Each term has two sessions. Sessions always begin on January 3rd.*The terms of Congress are numbered. *We are currently in the 113th term of Congress.

Congress organizes three ways:

»1. Committees»2. Leadership»3. Party

Party Organization*Majority party – the political party with more members in either house of Congress*Minority party – the political party with fewer members in either house of Congress*The Majority Party gets to pick the leaders

54 Democrats – 45 Republicans – 2 Independents

U.S. Senate

U.S. HOUSE OF REPS

231 Republicans 204 Democrats

House LeadershipSpeaker of the House

John Boehner, R-OHMajority

Party Leader

Majority Whip

Minority Party Leader

Minority Whip

Senate LeadershipPresident of the Senate

(Always U.S. V.P.)

President Pro Tempore

Majority Party Leader

Majority Whip

Minority Party Leader

Minority Whip

Pat Leahy – D, VT

CommitteesBreaking into committees allows members of Congress to handle the workload of having to consider thousands of bills that are introduced each term.

There are four major types of committees: Standing, Select, Joint, and Conference

You will read about each of these for homework on pages 225-226. After your reading, you will choose two out of the four to compare and contrast with a Venn diagram.