United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the Constitution to make and pass or defeat federal legislation.
The Senate has exclusive power to confirm U.S. presidential appointments, to approve or reject treaties, and to convict or exonerate impeachment cases brought by the House. The Senate and the House provide a check and balance on the powers of the executive and judicial branches of government. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the U.S. Constitution, which has been in effect since March 4, 1789. Each of the 50 states is represented by two [|senators] who serve staggered six-year terms, for a total of 100 members.
From its inception in 1789 until 1913, senators were appointed by the state legislatures of their respective states. Since 1913, however, following ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment, senators have been elected by statewide popular vote.
The Senate has several powers of advice and consent. These include the approval of treaties, the confirmation of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, flag officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, other federal executive officials, and federal uniformed officers. If no candidate receives a majority of electors for vice president, the duty falls to the Senate to elect one of the top two recipients of electors to that office. The Senate conducts trials of officials who have been impeached by the House. The Senate has been considered both a more deliberative and prestigious body than the House of Representatives due to its longer terms, smaller size, and statewide constituencies, which historically led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere.
The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. Despite not being a senator, the vice president of the United States serves as ex officio presiding officer and president of the Senate; the vice president may vote only if the Senate is equally divided. In the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore, who is traditionally the most senior member of the Senate majority party, presides over the Senate, and more often by rule allows a junior senator to take the chair, guided by the parliamentarian. In the early 1920s, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began. The Senate's legislative and executive business is managed and scheduled by the Senate majority leader, who, on occasion, negotiates some matters with the Senate minority leader. A characteristic practice in the Senate is the filibuster on some matters and its remedy the vote on cloture.
History
The drafters of the Constitution debated more about how to award representation in the Senate than about any other part of the Constitution. While bicameralism and the idea of a proportional "people's house" were widely popular, discussions about Senate representation proved contentious. In the end, some small states—unwilling to give up their equal power with larger states under the Articles of Confederation—threatened to secede in 1787, and won the day by a vote of 5–4 in what became known as the Connecticut Compromise. The Connecticut Compromise provided, among other things, that each state—regardless of population—would be represented by two senators.First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate. The name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders, derived from senex, meaning old man in Latin. Article Five of the Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that state's consent. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959.
File:Combined--Control of the U.S. House of Representatives - Control of the U.S. Senate.png|thumb|300x300px|A graph of party control of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and the Presidency since 1855
Before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were elected by the individual state legislatures. Problems with repeated vacant seats due to the inability of a legislature to elect senators, intrastate political struggles, bribery and intimidation gradually led to a growing movement to amend the Constitution to allow for the direct election of senators.
In contrast to the House of Representatives, the Senate has historically had stronger norms of conduct for its members.
Functions
Senate approval is required to pass any federal legislation. The Constitution provides several unique functions for the Senate that form its ability to "checks and balances" the powers of other elements of the federal government. These include the requirement that the Senate may advise and must consent to some of the president's government appointments; also, the Senate must consent to all treaties with foreign governments; it tries all impeachments, and it elects the vice president in the event no person gets a majority of the electoral votes.Legislation
Bills may be introduced in either chamber of Congress. However, the Constitution's Origination Clause provides that "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives". As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes. Furthermore, the House of Representatives holds that the Senate does not have the power to originate appropriation bills, or bills authorizing the expenditure of federal funds.Historically, the Senate has disputed the interpretation advocated by the House. However, when the Senate originates an appropriations bill, the House simply refuses to consider it, thereby settling the dispute in practice. The constitutional provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in which money bills approved by Parliament have originated in the House of Commons per constitutional convention.
Although the Constitution gave the House the power to initiate revenue bills, in practice the Senate is equal to the House in the respect of spending. As Woodrow Wilson wrote:
The approval of both houses is required for any bill, including a revenue bill, to become law. Both Houses must pass the same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by sending amendments back and forth or by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies.
Appointment confirmations
The president can make certain appointments only with the advice and consent of the Senate. Officials whose appointments require the Senate's approval include members of the Cabinet, heads of most federal executive agencies, ambassadors, justices of the Supreme Court, and other federal judges. Under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, a large number of government appointments are subject to potential confirmation; however, Congress has passed legislation to authorize the appointment of many officials without the Senate's consent. Usually, confirmation requirements are reserved for those officials with the most significant final decision-making authority.Typically, a nominee is the first subject to a hearing before a Senate committee. Thereafter, the nomination is considered by the full Senate. The majority of nominees are confirmed; however, in a small number of cases each year, Senate committees purposely fail to act on a nomination to block it. In addition, the president sometimes withdraws nominations when they appear unlikely to be confirmed. Because of this, outright rejections of nominees on the Senate floor are infrequent. There have been only nine Cabinet nominees rejected outright in United States history.
The powers of the Senate concerning nominations are subject to some constraints. For instance, the Constitution provides that the president may make an appointment during a congressional recess without the Senate's advice and consent. The recess appointment remains valid only temporarily. The office becomes vacant again at the end of the next congressional session. Nevertheless, presidents have frequently used recess appointments to circumvent the possibility that the Senate may reject the nominee. Furthermore, as the Supreme Court held in Myers v. United States, although the Senate's advice and consent are required for the appointment of certain executive branch officials, it is not necessary for their removal. Recess appointments have faced a significant amount of resistance. In 1960, the U.S. Senate passed a legally non-binding resolution against recess appointments to the Supreme Court.