Beatriz Schilling
Mr. Hamels
American Government
Xavier High School
C
HAPTER
T
EN
– C
ONGRESS
B
IG
I
DEA
W
ORKSHEET
S
TUDY
G
UIDE
Section One: The National Legislature
(p 262-265)
Our Congress is
bicameral
, which means that it is made up of two houses or chambers.
(p 262)
This structure
was selected for three reasons:
1.
historical
The British
parliament
had consisted of two houses since the 1300’s (p 262)
Of the states, all but
Georgia
and
Pennsylvania
had two houses in their legislatures by 1787
(p 263)
Today, only
Nebraska
has a single house legislature (p263)
2.
practical
A two-chambered body settled a conflict between
Virginia
and
New Jersey Plan
(p 263)
The
states
wanted to distributes seats in Congress in proportion to the population (p 263)
Smaller states demanded an
equal
voice in Congress (p 263)
3.
theoretical
The Framers knew that one house might act as a
check
on the other (p 263)
Each term in Congress will last for
2
years. (p 264)
Originally, each new term began on
March 4
, though that date was changed to
January 3
by the
20th
Amendment in
1933
. (p 264)
Each term is broken into
2
sessions. (p 264)
While Congress may remain in session for most of the year, each house will
recess
for several short periods
during a session.
(p 265)
Neither house may
prorogue
without the consent of the other.
(p 265)
The President may call Congress into
special
session to deal with emergencies.
(p 265)
This last happened in
1948
, when President
Harry Truman
called one to deal with the aftermath of WWII.
(p
265)
C
HAPTER
T
EN
– C
ONGRESS
B
IG
I
DEA
W
ORKSHEET
S
TUDY
G
UIDE
Section Two: The House of Representatives
(p 267-273)
The House of Representatives has
435
members, though that number is not fixed by the
Constitution
.
(p 267)
The size of the House increased with every
census
until
1929
.
(p 268)
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- Summer '16
- Mrs. Welty
- United States Congress, United States Senate, United States House of Representatives
