What are the main duties of the house of representatives? What do they do? Do they pass laws?
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Congress is the legislature (that is, lawmaking body) of the U.S. Federal Government.  Congress is divided into two chambers, the House of Representatives (lower chamber) and the Senate (upper chamber).  They are roughly equal in power, but there are differences in both the composition and functions of each body.\n\nFirst, the similarities.  All bills must pass both chambers in order to become law.  Both chambers have oversight responsibility over Federal agencies (usually exercised in committees).  Legislation can originate in either chamber, except for spending bills, which must originate in the House.  It just takes a simple majority for a bill to pass each chamber.\n\nFor more information on the legislative process, see:\n\nhttp://www.vote-smart.org/resource_govt101_02.php\n\nNow, the contrasts.  First, the differences in composition.  \n\nThe House has 435 members elected from single member districts all of roughly equal population.  The districts are drawn up by state legislatures after each decennial census determines how many seats each state gets.  All members must stand for election every 2 years.  The Senate has 100 members, exactly 2 from each state, regardless of the state's population.  Senators serve for 6 years, but their terms are staggered so about one third are up for election every two years.  \n\nAs mentioned above, all spending bills must originate in the House.  Also, the House is the chamber which has impeachment powers, which it exercises by a simple majority vote. (An impeachment is akin to an indictment).  Once impeached the official is tried before the Senate, which can remove him or her if 2/3rds of the Senate finds him or her guilty.\n\nBut the Senate has several other functions not shared with the House.  First, all presidential appointments (cabinet secretaries, judges, ambassadors, high ranking military officials, etc, etc) must be approved by (a simple majority in) the Senate.  Treaties must be approved by 2/3rds of the Senate.\n\nThat is it in a nutshell.  For more info, see Article I of the U.S. Constitution, especially sections 1 and 2 [1] and also the other links below will prove very helpful to you. (And be sure to check out the info above on how a bill becomes law)
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It's Sergeant AT Arms.  The United States House of Representatives Sergeant at Arms is an officer of the House with law enforcement, protocol, and administrative responsibilities. The Sergeant at Arms is elected at the beginning of each Congress by the membership of the chamber.
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The Legislative Branch was created by the U.S. Constitution.  Delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. The fifty-five delegates who signed this monumental political document were the best minds of the Colonies at the time. The Constitution was forwarded to the Congress and the following year was ratified by conventions in nine states, and made the law of the land.\n\nThe Legislative Branch:\n\nThe Congress is the Legislative Branch. Its main function is to pass laws. It also oversees the execution of these laws, and checks various executive and judicial powers\n\nThe Congress is bicameral- it is composed of two houses. One house is the House of Representatives, the other is the Senate.\n\nThe House of Representatives, or House for short, is composed of four hundred and thirty five members. Each state is allocated one or more representatives, based on its population as calculated by the decennial (once in ten years) Census. Each state is entitled to at least one representative. A state that is allocated more than one representative divides itself, as state procedures dictate, into a number of districts equal to the number of representatives it is entitled to elect. The people of each district vote to elect one representative to Congress. (States that have only one representative allocated choose at-large representatives- the state votes as one entire district.) The District of Columbia and a number of U. S. territories have been permitted to elect delegates to the House. These delegates may participate in debates, and sit and vote in committee, but are not allowed to vote in the full House. House members are elected every even-numbered year for two-year terms. The House is presided over by a Speaker, who is elected by the House.\n\nThe Senate represents the states equally. Each state chooses two senators, regardless of population. Originally, senators were chosen by their state's legislature. The Seventeenth Amendment (ratified in 1913), however changed that, and now senators are elected by the voters of their state. Senators are elected for six year terms. Every two years, at the same time as Representative elections, approximately one-third of the senators face elections. The Vice-President is President of the Senate, but only votes if there is a tie. The Senate also chooses a President Pro Tempore to preside in the Vice-President's absence (though, in practice, most of the time, senators from the majority take turns presiding for short periods).\n\nThe Senate and the House are both required to approve legislation before it becomes a law. The two houses are equal in legislative power, but revenue bills (bills relating to taxation) may only originate in the House, however, like other bills, the Senate's approval is still required, and the Senate may amend such bills, as with any other legislation.\n\nThe Senate holds additional powers relating to treaties and the appointments of executive and judicial officials. This power is known as "advice and consent." The Senate's advice and consent is required for the President to appoint judges and many executive officers, and also to ratify treaties. To grant advice and consent on treaties, two-thirds of the Senators must concur (agree).\n\nWhile most votes require a simple majority to pass, Senate rules allow a procedure called a fillibuster (essentially unlimited debate), that can only be ended by three-fifths vote. This effectively means that the minority can force supporters to get the support of three-fifths of members to pass the measure. Use of the fillibuster tends to be controversial. Whichever party is in the majority tends to call its use "obstructionism", while the other side sees it as an important check on the majority.\n\nThe House has the sole power to impeach federal executive and judicial officers. According to the Constitution, officers may be impeached for "trea
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US states have members of the House of Representatives.  US territories and other areas such as protectorate (Puerto Rico) has representatives that are non-voting members.  There purpose is to provide a communication from their terroritories to the House.
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There are two houses of congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. \n\nThe Senate has two representatives (Senators) from each state.\n\nThe House of Representatives has representatives based on the population in each state.\n\nA Congressman may be either a Senator or a Representative. Generally, the distinction is Congressman and Senator, but not always.\n\nSenators, by virtue of the fact that there only 100, have more power. I don't know exactly how many Representatives there are - you could probably find that datum fairly quickly, and I am too lazy to do it for you. I think a conservative estimate is that there are more that 3 representatives for every Senator.
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1) New bills usually go directly to subcommittee, which can hold hearings on bill \n2) Committee/subcommittee staffs conduct research, line up witnesses for hearings \n3) Write and rewrite bills \n4) Committee/subcommittee report on proposed legislation \n5) Reports are bound in beige or green covers - available from Government Printing Office \n6) Committees most important output: "marked up" (rewritten) bill \n7) Bill submitted to full House or Senate for debate and voting
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The legislative - Congress (House of Representatives and Senate)\n\nAlthough the current Executive branch likes to think they are above the laws that Congress makes  ;)
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two senators\nand 13 representatives\n\nand all of them have offices in and spend time in DC\n\n\nNOTE:The term congressmen while often used to describe just house members, is by root definition referring to both the Senate and the House of Representatives members
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The United States Congress is an example with the House of Representatives and the Senate. The difference is the House represents states by population. The bigger the state the more reps you have. In the Senate each state only has 2 reps no matter the size.  Parliament in England is another example with the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Good luck on your quiz. Post how you did. I want to know
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Senate:\nRepublicans:\nMajority Leader: Bill Frist (TN)\nMajority Whip: Mitch McConnell (KY)\nPresident Pro Tempore: Ted Stevens (AK)\n\nDemocrats:\nMinority Leader: Harry Reid (NV)\nMinority Whip: Dick Durbin (IL)\n\nHouse:\nRepublicans: \nSpeaker of the House: Dennis Hastert (IL)\nMajority Leader: John Boehner (OH)\nMajority Whip: Roy Blunt (MO)\n\nDemocrats: \nMinority Leader: Nancy Pelosi (CA)\nMinority Whip: Steny Hoyer (MD)\n\nThe Majority Leaders in both houses are in charge directing legislation onto the Floor of their chambers.  They lead their parties and determine what position their party will take on any particular legislation.  The Whips are in charge of rounding up votes.  They must ensure that the party members are going to vote with the party, and they can tally what legislation can and can't pass.\n\nThe Speaker of the House is the 3rd in the line of Constitutional succession after the President and Vice-President.  He presides over the House of Representatives and conducts affairs.  He also has control over the powerful Rules Committee, which determines what legislation gets to the floor of the House and what kind of debate it can have.\n\nThe President Pro Tempore is the presiding officer of the Senate when the Vice President is not around.  He doesn't really have much power outside of that.
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Oh my god!!! Simple stuff...you should know this already. \n\nThe Legislature or Legislative Branch of Government - they are in charge of making the laws of this Country.\n\nExecutive Branch - That's where Bush and Cheney are right now. The president, vice president & their two cabinets .....they are responsible for carrying out the laws of the land, at the National Level. They also enforce our Laws and develop policy in certain key areas like Commerce & Education..etc\n\nHope you get it now....\n\ngo to www.mcwdn.org
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1. Term limits to keep Congress fresh and not so self serving. House members run every 2 years and are almost always campaigning rather than concentrating on the country.\n2. The abolishment of PACS and other lobbying interests. Let the issues be decided on the merits, not how much money lines the pockets of the lawmakers.
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No one can expect all 500+ Representatives and Senators to be experts on all topics.  Each of them are assigned to multiple committees; these become their specialties.  These committees then explain the intricacies of each topic to the members of other committees.  They then make their votes, often trading support to gain votes for bills they support.
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20- read below\n\nCommittees are not mentioned in the Constitution, but they are an important part of our law-making process. The first Congress adopted a committee system to handle all of the many tasks given to the new American government by the Constitution.\n\nCommittees are like teams that study national problems. They help Congress organize its workload, report progress, and suggest solutions to the challenges that face the nation. They propose laws that are debated and voted on by the whole House.\n\nWhat are congressional standing committees and why are they necessary?\nStanding committees are permanent committees. When Congress was first formed, temporary committees helped legislators organize their work into different categories. As the number of laws proposed increased, standing committees replaced temporary ones. Today the congressional standing committees are permanent panels made up of Members of the House or Senate that make and debate laws for different areas of public policy. Each committee has jurisdiction over a certain area, for example health, education, the environment and foreign affairs. \nThe U.S. House of Representatives has 20 standing committees. In the 109th Congress, these committees were named: Agriculture, Appropriations, Armed Services, Budget, Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Government Reform, Homeland Security, House Administration, International Relations, Judiciary, Resources, Rules, Science, Small Business, Standards of Official Conduct, Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs, and Ways and Means.
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The Legislative brach (Elected Representatives ie;congressmen) Makes the labor laws. \nThe Dept. of labor (acting mostly on tips) enforces the laws through fines, arrests, revoking liscences.\nThe Judicial branch Hears the cases made by the Dept. of labor and people apealing their cases against the Dept of labor then makes rulings about which side was acting within the law. They also decide if the Dept. of labor was honoring constitutional rights of all involved.
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If you go to Congress.org you can get a listing of recent bill in Congress on both House and Senate.  It will also tell you how different representatives voted and what the final count was as well as a synopsis of what each bill is about.  I believe it also allows you to get info on state laws as well.  \n\nAnother great resource is the "Congress At Your Fingertips" directory.  It has all the contact info and more for every member of the House and Senate.  The book is printed by Capitol Advantage website www.capitoladvantage.com
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The House has 435 members and each state gets a certain number of representatives based on their population. Each state gets two senators. This was a compromise way back when so that large population states woudn't be under represented when small states also got two senators.\n\nHouse members run every two years; Senators every six. \n\nThe Senate is considered the more deliberative and stately of the two. The House tends to be a rough and tumble place. \n\nBoth houses consider legislation; legislation can originate in either house, but it must also be approved in the other house and differences must be worked out in conference. \n\nIf there is a tie in the Senate, the vice president can break the tie.\n\nThe House can vote to impeach a president; the Senate tries him or her.