1. A MERICAN GOVERNMENT HOLT HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Role and Power of Congress 1 Section 2: Houses and Members of Congress Essential Question: Describe the differences between the HoR and the Sen. in terms of size, term of service, and requirements, explain how congressional districts are drawn and how gerrymandering impacts this, Identify a non-typical member of Congress (which state they are from, explain how they are non-typical, and identify which political party they support)

2. A MERICAN GOVERNMENT HOLT HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Role and Power of Congress 2 Section 2: Houses and Members of Congress Differences in the structure and membership of Congress: Senate (upper house) 100 members six-year term representation equal, 2 per state members required to be at least 30 years old, U.S. citizens for at least nine years, and legal residents of the states they represent 1/3 of Senate up for re-election every 2 years

3. A MERICAN GOVERNMENT HOLT HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Role and Power of Congress 3 Section 2: Houses and Members of Congress Differences in the structure and membership of Congress: House of Representatives (lower house) 435 members two-year term representation determined by population members required to be at least 25 years old, U.S. citizens for at least seven years, and legal residents of the states they represent

4. A MERICAN GOVERNMENT HOLT HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Role and Power of Congress 4 Section 2: How congressional districts are drawn. Congressional districts are drawn according to the population distribution as indicated by each official census every 10 years. This is known as apportionment. Often political parties will try to influence these apportionments to favor their political party in a process known as Gerrymandering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUDBgYodIE Since the only requirement is population (appx 710k per rep) districts can be drawn oddly as long as they have the required number of citizens. If a state has less than the population per rep, they get only one representative.

5. A MERICAN GOVERNMENT HOLT HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON Role and Power of Congress 5 Section 2: Houses and Members of Congress Typical profile of a U.S. congressmember: has at least a college degree is a white male over 40 years old Congress WEBQUEST Using Google, identify a non-typical member of congress Give their name, the state/district that they serve, and explain how they are a non-typical member of congress