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Introduction: The Two Congresses Congress was intended by the Framers to be the dominant branch of the national government, more central to activities and more powerful than the executive or judicial branches of government. This is evident in the responsibilities given to the branch. Congress is the lawmaking body with particular responsibility for the economy and military and defense issues — the Framers entrusted Congress with the power of the purse and the power to declare war. Congress is also the primary representative body of the national government, providing the only direct representation of individuals at the national level.

Our Congress is a bicameral, or two-chamber, legislature composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The two chambers are different from each other by design as the Framers used the two-chamber structure to achieve a particular set of goals. The House of Representatives is the larger of the two chambers, having 435 members. The House was designed to directly represent the people. As a result, voters in congressional districts choose their members of the House of Representatives every two years.

Make-up of the US Congress

Congressional districts are defined geographical areas that contain approximately equal numbers of people. In awarding representation, the House focuses on population, so larger population states have more members of the House than do smaller population states. Members of the House serve two-year terms, which means that representatives have to run for re-election regularly and have to stay in close contact with their constituents and work to represent their needs and desires. Because of this, the House tends to respond more directly to the “will of the people” at any given time. As we will see, the structure of the House as a legislative body is weighted in favor of expressing majority will.

In creating the Senate, the Framers sought to strike a balance between creating a system of representation based on population or one based on equality. Since the House is the place

where individuals get their most direct representation, the Senate became the chamber that balances the desire for states to have a voice in the national government and to have that voice equally, regardless of population size. At its current 100 members, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state. Since an entire state makes up the geographic area being represented, senators often become well versed in a broader array of issues than do members of the House. Senators are elected to 6-year terms, which the Framers created to insulate senators from the hurly-burly of day-to-day politics and help them think more about longer-term issues. This is designed to balance the House’s focus on the demands of the popular will by creating a Senate that can put the brakes on things as might be needed. As a result of this, the Senate is a place where minority viewpoints have a greater chance of expression.

The US Congress has a unique design and an important set of constitutional duties that influence how it functions. Members of Congress are charged with 2 main, and equally important, jobs — representation and lawmaking. As representatives, they are elected from districts and states to be the voice of the people at the national level. From this perspective, Congress is a national assembly of locally elected representatives whose responsibility it is to make sure that the needs and wants of the people are addressed. Representatives have to spend time in their states and districts, engaging constituents and staying informed on the issues that matter most to the voters. They have to be advocates for resources for their constituents and sometimes compete with other members of Congress for those resources.

National Assembly of Locally Elected Representatives

At the same time, in a very different world that is often far from their districts and states, members of Congress function in a legislative body whose members are charged with making the laws by which we all live. From this perspective, they are a national policy making body that has to develop laws to govern all. Here their primary responsibility is to do what is best, right, or good for the nation as a whole. In this capacity, members become policy experts and interact with policy leaders, lobbyists, bureaucrats, and other government officials who comprise the Washington, DC, legislative world. As legislators, members serve

on policy committees, take part in public hearings, draft and debate legislative proposals, and conduct oversight of the federal government agencies. Important here are interactions with the president and other members of the executive branch, and political party leaders.

Each of these constitutional roles for members of Congress involves complex and time-consuming activities. Yet what is probably most interesting about the structure of Congress is that members are responsible for carrying out these vastly different duties simultaneously. Members of Congress do not legislate for a week or month or year and then switch to the representational role. Instead, they have to devote their time, attention, and energy to both jobs at the same time. This is a daunting task, and balancing the needs of Washington and the home district or state is one of the greatest challenges that members of Congress face. As a result, Congress follows a timetable that allows members to be home at least a part of each week and schedules long uninterrupted breaks in the legislative calendar to allow members to interact with their constituents. While many members might want more time to spend on the intricacies of the legislative process, re-election is also an important goal for most of them, so shuttling both physically and mentally back and forth between the two worlds is a necessity of serving in Congress.

Time Spent on Major Activities by Members of Congress

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Beyond the workload and time spent juggling their two different roles, members of Congress must also confront the possibility that their responsibilities can sometimes be in conflict with one another. It is not hard to imagine circumstances in which what might be the best policy solution to a particular problem isn’t necessarily the best thing for a member’s own district or state interests. For example, the military might think it is time to retire a particular model of airplane, but members of Congress could vote to continue its production because cutting it would mean a loss of jobs and revenue in the districts and states where the plane was built. The same situation could apply to representatives from tobacco-growing states who fought efforts to end financial subsidies to tobacco farmers, despite the fact that the federal government spends a lot of time and money on efforts to combat the health effects of smoking. Given their two responsibilities, we can ask how members should be expected to balance these roles when they compete.