The Origin of Constituencies and Congressional Basics American Government

Purpose Congress can be viewed as the citizens’ direct link to the branch of government responsible for public policy Congress represents constituents, makes laws, provides oversight of governmental agencies, clarifies policy, and ratifies public policy Congress asserts its authority from Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution The Constitution states that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”

Constituents Congressmen represent what are known as constituents Constituents reside in the state or district that the Congressman is elected to represent. Senators represent the entire state, while Representatives represent their individual district There is only one Representative per district, which means that the United States possesses a single-member district system of governance in the House of Representatives

How constituencies are determined Senators represent an entire state and each state has 2 Senators This is determined by Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution Representatives represent a specific district within their respective states This is determined by Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution The number of districts that exist in each state is determined every 10 years based upon data from the census The change in how many representatives exist in each state is known as reapportionment The process of redrawing the district lines is known as redistricting

Districts The purpose of a district is to determine the constituency a Representative will represent Districts are supposed to be drawn so that they are: geographically contiguous compact in shape roughly equal in population There are times however when districts are gerrymandered Gerrymandering is when the districts are drawn with odd shapes and favor the political power in the state making the changes

Basics When Congress is working, they are considered to be in session Congress generally divides their sessions into one year periods of time Early Congresses divided into as many as three sessions At the end of every Congress, which takes place every two years, Congress will vote to adjourn This is a temporary closing of business and usually takes place in October of election years Congress can also take breaks without formally adjourning This is referred to as taking a recess Recesses can last for a few days and can last for weeks or months If important business comes up when Congress is in recess, the president has the power to call a special session All Congressmen are required to attend when the president callas a special session