The New International Encyclopædia/Congress, United States

CONGRESS, United States, The legislative branch of the Federal Government of the United States. It was instituted by the Constitution, which prescribes its membership and defines its powers. It has no general legislative power, such as is enjoyed by the British Parliament, and, in a lesser degree, by the legislatures of the several American States; but it has only such functions and authority as the Constitution, expressly or by necessary implication, has conferred upon it. Acting in conjunction with the President and the Federal judiciary, it exercises the sovereign power of the people of the United States, in so far as that power has been committed to the Central Government.

Congress is composed of two ‘houses,’ or chambers—a Senate and a House of Representatives. It is not, however, as is generally assumed to be the case, modeled upon the British Parliament, with its House of Lords and House of Commons, nor is its bicameral form due to any general agreement on the part of the framers of the Constitution that that type of legislature was theoretically preferable to a legislature of a simpler type. The Continental Congress, under whose direction the War of the Rebellion was waged, had after the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, as before, only a single chamber. But this was not of a popular character, and it is not the House of Representatives, but the Senate, which represents it in the present Congress. These first American congresses represented not the people of the Colonies and States, but the Colonies and States themselves, and it was to preserve the weight and dignity of the States among themselves and especially of the smaller and less populous States as against the larger and more influential ones, that the Senate was instituted as a counterweight to the popular branch of the National Legislature.

The Senate is composed of two Senators from each State, and its membership has accordingly varied from twenty-two in the first Congress (when eleven States constituted the Union) to ninety at the present time (1902). The Constitution prescribes that Senators shall be chosen by the legislatures of the several States for a term of six years, and constitutes them a permanent and continuing body by providing a method of classification, whereunder the term of one class shall continuously overlap that of another, the terms of one-third of the members expiring every two years. Senators must be thirty years of age and residents of the State for which they shall be chosen. The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the United States, but he has no part in its deliberations and no vote unless the Senators are equally divided. The rule of the Congress of the Confederation which preceded the Constitution, that the voting should be by States, each State represented having one vote, was not retained in the creation of the Senate, it being provided by the Constitution that each Senator shall have an individual vote. Senators receive a compensation fixed by Congress, of $5000 a year, with a small allowance for stationery and mileage.

The House of Representatives is not a permanent or continuing body, but its entire membership is renewed simultaneously every second year. Its members are chosen by popular vote, and it is provided that they shall be apportioned among the several States included in the Union acccording to their respective numbers. The Constitution, as adopted, provided that for the purpose of apportionment the population of a State should be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons three-fifths of the whole number of slaves. The basis of apportionment fixed by the Constitution for the first enumeration was one Representative for every 30,000 inhabitants, with the proviso that each State should have at least one Representative. The first House numbered 65, and successive enumerations and apportionments have varied the number of Representatives as follows: in 1793, 105; 1803, 141; 1813, 181; 1823, 213; 1833, 240; 1843, 223; 1853, 233; 1863 (during the Civil War), 243; 1873, 293; 1883, 325; 1891, 357; 1901, 386. The basis of apportionment under the twelfth census (1900) is one Representative to every 194,182 inhabitants. This furnishes the following representation for the several States:

Alabama	9
Arkansas	7
California	8
Colorado	3
Connecticut	5
Delaware	1
Florida	3
Georgia	11
Idaho	1
Illinois	25
Indiana	13
Iowa	11
Kansas	8
Kentucky	11
Louisiana	7
Maine	4
Maryland	6
Massachusetts	14
Michigan	12
Minnesota	9
Mississippi	8
Missouri	16
Montana	1
Nebraska	6
Nevada	1
New Hampshire	2
New Jersey	10
New York	37
North Carolina	12
North Dakota	2
Ohio	21
Oregon	2
Pennsylvania	32
Rhode Island	2
South Carolina	7
South Dakota	2
Tennessee	10
Texas	16
Utah	1
Vermont	2
Virginia	10
Washington	3
West Virginia	5
Wisconsin	11
Wyoming	1

It is further provided by the Constitution that Representatives shall be at least twenty-five years of age and residents of the States in which they are chosen. They receive an annual salary, determined by Congress, the amount of which at present is $5000. The House of Representatives chooses its own presiding officer, called the Speaker, from among its members. In the process of time this has become an office of great power and importance, ranking, perhaps, next after that of the President in influence and authority. This aggrandizement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives has resulted from the control over legislation, which, as the leader of the dominant political party in the House and under the committee system which has come to prevail in Congress, he has gradually acquired. He does not, upon becoming Speaker, lose his right to vote or otherwise to participate in the proceedings of the House.

Under the Constitution the two Houses of Congress have in most respects an equal voice in legislation, the only important exception being the requirement that all revenue bills shall originate in the popular branch of the legislature. Each House is made the sole judge of its the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, though the times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives are left to the legislatures of the several States.

The ample legislative powers of Congress, which are enumerated in Sec. 8 of Art. I., and Sec. 3 of Art. IV. of the Constitution (q.v.). are limited by the veto power of the President. Every bill intended to have the force of law must be submitted to him, after passing the two Houses separately, and, if vetoed by him, will fail to take effect, unless passed a second time and by a two-thirds vote of each House. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days after it shall have been presented to him, it shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless its return be prevented by the adjournment of Congress. The Constitution provides for an annual meeting of Congress on the first Monday in December unless a different date is duly appointed by law. The President is empowered by the Constitution to call an extra session of Congress or of either House.

In addition to their legislative powers, each of the two Houses of Congress is endowed by the Constitution with important functions in the government. The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment, and the Senate the exclusive authority to try impeachments. In addition to this, the Senate exercises, in conjunction with the President, important executive powers in the ratification of treaties and in the confirmation of his appointments to all important offices of the Government, including the members of his Cabinet, the judges of the Supreme and other Federal courts, and even officers of the army and navy.

In the century of national life which has just closed, the balance of governmental power has insensibly shifted from the Executive to the Congress, and in Congress from the Senate to the House of Representatives. The free exercise by the Senate of its power of refusing assent to the President's nominations to office, and the extreme development of the party system in national politics, have operated in a great measure to deprive the executive of the actual power of making appointments to office; while the popular character of the House, the absolute control exercised over its business by the Speaker and other leaders of the dominant political party, and the consequent unanimity and weight of its action, have given it a marked predominance in legislation. It is both more active and more influential than the Senate, notwithstanding the fact that its great size and the enormous volume of its business have deprived it of the character of a popular deliberative assembly.

Many acute observers see in these facts a curious reproduction in our history of recent British experience in the great art of self-government. They argue that the place of Parliament in the British system is being taken by Congress in ours, while the House of Representatives seems destined to assume the supremacy over the other organs of government which has been attained by the House of Commons in England. It is a well-known fact that the Cabinet in Great Britain, which is the virtual executive, is in fact a self-constituted committee, made up of party leaders, of the House of Commons; and it is generally assumed that our executive is placed by the Constitution in an impregnable position of independence. But the leaders of the House of Representatives have, to a considerable degree, assumed the same control over the legislation which is exercised in England by the Cabinet, and it is plausibly argued that it will require no great extension of Congressional power to reduce the constitutional executive in this country to the same position of nominal authority but real impotence as that which it holds in the British system. It is accordingly asserted that the oligarchy of party leaders who determine the membership of the standing committees of the House and control their action are already the masters of the several executive departments, determining their very organization and policy through the power over appropriations which the present organization of the House lodges in the hands of its leaders; that the business of the Government is carried on more and more through conferences, as yet informal, between the President and this Congressional cabinet, while the great heads of departments tend to become advisers of the real masters of the situation, the Congressional leaders, rather than of their nominal chief, the President. It is not denied that a strong and popular executive may stay the rising tide of Congressional supremacy for a time, but it is claimed that the appeal to the people, by which he accomplishes this, is itself a confession of the real weakness of his position. To such observers, it seems highly probable that within the lifetime of many now living the vital differences still remaining between the British and American systems will have disappeared, and that the Government of the United States will have become to all intents and purposes a government of the parliamentary or congressional type, and that this will be accomplished without formal amendment of the Constitution, by the insidious and persistent process of Congressional usurpation.

Reference has been made to the great power wielded by certain committees of the House. It remains to be noticed that the large increase in the number of Representatives and the growth in volume and complexity of the matters with which they have to deal have necessitated the reference of all bills to standing committees. These conditions have made it impossible for the House to give any real consideration even to the most important measures of legislation, and it follows that the real processes of legislation—the discussion, the sifting, the shaping of bills—is done wholly in the committee-rooms. The committees, therefore, being deliberately made up with reference to the carrying out of party policy, have acquired virtual control over the legislation of the House, their action on bills submitted to them being usually final and conclusive.

The ‘committee system,’ as it is called, was adopted by the House of Representatives at an early period of its history. At present there are forty-eight standing committees, which are appointed by the Speaker for each Congress, and which hold office during the life of the Congress. These committees vary in size, and are made up of members of all parties, the dominant party having an effective majority in each. The principal committees of the House are those on Rules, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Foreign Affairs, Judiciary, Commerce, Elections, Military Affairs, and Naval Affairs. The Senate, because of its smaller membership, and its tradition of dignity and deliberation, has to a large extent retained the character of a deliberative assembly, and much of the work of legislation is still actually performed by it. It has also adopted the committee system; but its committees perform the more legitimate function of sifting and shaping the bills for their more convenient consideration by the Senate. They are appointed by vote of the Senate, and, like those of the House, hold office during the life of the Congress for which they are chosen. The most important of the Senate committees is that on Foreign Affairs, though those on Appropriations, Ways and Means, the Judiciary, and on Military and Naval Affairs, also play an important rôle in shaping legislation. For a history of the United States Congress, see the article United States.

The leading authorities on the position of Congress in the American scheme of government are: Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government (Boston, 1885), and Bryce, The American Commonwealth (London, 1893). See, also, the authorities referred to in the article Constitution of the United States.