One of the most unique and vital features of the American government is the establishment of a constitution. This constitution is a result of the fear of tyranny and the idea of rights that are unable to be infringed upon. The Constitution of America became the base of all law and decisions made in court. It gives us the ability to propose and pass laws, who can sit in power, what states can and can’t do under the supremacy clause, disburse funds, etc. In order to truly understand how the constitution can be implicated and interpreted, it is important to understand where it came from, and what Article One of the constitution states about governmental organization, and the Legislative branch. If one is to understand how the government functions, …show more content…
It also shows the special function of the House of Representatives. Only the House of Representatives is allowed to propose bills that raise revenue. Article 7 also instills the idea of getting presidential approval on all bills that have passed both the senate and the House of Representatives. If the president vetoes a bill, the bill will go back with suggestions on how to make it better. After the edits from the president, there is another vote. A 2/3rd vote is needed to pass the bill into law (US Const. art I. sec VII). The idea of representation was critical throughout the constitution. This can easily be seen in Article one section VIII. Section VIII states the powers that congress has. Some of the powers that congress has are as follows: collect taxes, borrow money, regular commerce, declare war, and maintain an army and a navy (Ginsberg 51). These powers are vast, but well-regulated with the intention of being checked by the House. The idea of expressed power was granted to congress and to the president with the establishment of this section (Ginsberg 51) this states that taxes are to be uniform throughout all …show more content…
Three important committees in the House of Representatives are: the Ethics Committee, the budget committee, and the Food and Drug Administration. These are all important for the safety of Americans as well. The Food and Drug Administration is set in place to make sure that all Americans are safe in their right to the pursuit of happiness (having access to safe food and medications). The Ethics committee is set in place to ensure and rule on Ethics of people in office. This is important because it ensures that people in office are held to the same standard as others. The budget committee is in charge of overseeing the federal budget, which is a big deal
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Show MoreIn our countries government, Congress plays a major role in decision making. They’re primary role is to pass laws. These laws start off as bills. Bills can only be introduced by members of Congress. Although these bills only come from Congressman, there are many people who influence these bills. Such as the president, regular citizens, offices in the executive branch, and many others. The bills right off the bat do not have a very good chance of passage. Only one out of every ten bills even gets any attention at all. This is because they must go through many tests and hearings before they even have a chance of landing on the president’s desk. These steps in a bill becoming a law are very important, and make sure that all bills passed into law are the best of the best.
The document I chose to write about is the United States Constitution. When the thirteen British colonies in North America declared their independence in 1776, they laid down that “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The “colonies” had to establish a government, which would be the framework for the United States. The purpose of a written constitution is to define and therefore more specifically limit government powers. After the Articles of Confederation failed to work in the 13 colonies, the U.S. Constitution was created in 1787.
Instead of a bill being pushed through one singular body, it must pass two distinct bodies before potentially becoming law. The two bodies also provide a layer of security in regards to corruption. If one house is held by many corrupt members, it is extremely unlikely for the other one to also be as corrupt. Publius states that the crucial role of the Senate under the Constitution is to secure that any law passed is represented by a majority of the people and the states. The House of Representatives represents the people, while the Senate represents the states. The Senate prevents larger states from always killing legislation introduced by smaller states, and gives each state equal say. This is the crucial role of the Senate; to act as a check on the House of Representatives and give representation to the
In most cultures, people have their own traits that define who they are; however, Americans have some extraordinary traits that make them different from the people of other cultures. One particular trait that all Americans have is responsibility. Moreover, the American spirit has included this trait for hundreds of years. One source of this trait is the Constitution. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in 1787 to serve the people. The Constitution is a plan of government that describes the structures and powers of government; it is called a higher law because it serves as a fundamental law that everyone, including those in power, must obey, and its ideas cannot be destroyed. The Constitution has twenty-seven amendments, and the first ten amendments are called Bill of Rights. Each amendment gives American people some rights and duties such as voting, serving on the jury, and paying taxes. These
For starters, chapter six conveys the United States Congress. Congress is made up of two chambers; the Senate and the House of Representatives. These members work closely together to create laws and bills, pass them along to the President of the United States, and work towards approval. The President has a huge role in the passage of laws, as well as, bills; he decides what gets passed and what gets declined. Without the President, laws would not receive approval and Congress would have quite the predicament on their hands.
Despite American author Mark Twain’s insistence that the members of Congress are idiots, the legislative body of the United States of America holds quite a bit of power. Although the powers of Congress, as granted to them in the Constitution of the United States, have remained the same, the importance placed on those powers has changed overtime, lessening for some, and rising for others.
...h an equal amount of delegate per state, giving small states an advantage. After continual debate a Connecticut delegate name Roger Sherman proposed the Connecticut Compromise (Great Compromise) that ultimately blended the two plans together, producing a bicameral legislative branch with a population base house (the House of Representatives) and a house base on equal delegates for each state (the Senate). One last thing that the delegates agreed upon was that there would be a bill of rights to protect the people, and that the Constitution would not be ratified without it. Years later, in 1791 the Constitution was ratified, and the people of the United States had an official and working government.
The American Constitution is the document that the American government is modelled after. Any decision made in the government, in any branch and at any level, must be in compliance with the Constitution. Consequently, the Constitution is one of the most important documents in American politics. Being that the Constitution is so very central in all aspects of important decision making, it would behoove the American people to know what the central messages and the main conceptual precepts of this document are. This paper will consider three foundational principles of natural rights, classical republicanism, and popular sovereignty, explaining what each of them mean, and how they continue to shape what America is as a country to this day.
Before the adoption of the United States Constitution, the U.S. was governed by the Articles of Confederation. These articles stated that almost every function of the government was chartered by the legislature known as Congress. There was no distinction between legislative or executive powers. This was a major shortcoming in how the United States was governed as many leaders became dissatisfied with how the government was structured by the Articles of Confederation. They felt that the government was too weak to effectively deal with the upcoming challenges. In 1787, an agreement was made by delegates at the Constitutional Convention that a national judiciary needed to be established. This agreement became known as The Constitution of the United States, which explicitly granted certain powers to each of the three branches of the federal government, while reserving other powers exclusively to the states or to the people as individuals. It is, in its own words, “the supreme Law of the Land” (Shmoop Editorial Team).
The Law Making Process is one of the most important parts of forming what our Nation is today, it involves millions of people, and every little thing that is created and passed by Congress will affect someone, somewhere, somehow.
If the people had the power to give their representatives the authority to make law, they naturally held the power to take it away. Accordingly, the Framers placed the power of making laws and taxes in the body most accountable to the people; the House of Representatives. It was no accident that the members of the House have the smallest districts and the most frequent elections of all branches of the federal government. The logic behind this was that it would encourage representatives to obey the wishes of the people, and simultaneously the people power to quickly remove any representatives negating their duty. Furthermore, the Constitution provides an additional check on the House, by making its laws dependent upon a separate legislative body: the senate. This provision in the Constitution is designed to mitigate the effects of the sudden and ever-changing passions of the people, by providing a smaller body, less dependent on the people, to serve as the stable voice of
The constitution of the United States is more than 200 years old, it dates back to the 18th century. The constitution is ‘“ The supreme law of the land” which means the highest form of law in the U.S. the name of the american government is the “constitution” after the delegates who signed the bill of rights it in the constitutional convention in philadelphia.There are 6 basic principles which the government operates under today that are set up by the constitution. The 6 basic principles are the popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers,judicial review, checks and balances and federalism.
The Constitution of the United States contains the fundamental laws of the nation. The form of the National Government establishes and defines the rights and freedoms of the American people. It also exposes the objectives of the national Government and the methods to achieve them. Before that, the leaders of the nation had concerted an alliance between the States under the articles of the confederation. However, the Congress created by articles lacked of authority to make States work together in the resolution of the national problems. The federal government is divided into three legislative, Executive and judicial branches. The powers of these branches are determined by the Constitution. The branches are supervised,
To begin with, the movies talked about the different districts, which reflects what we talked about in class about the congress that are the representative that represent the people, to speak for the people. For each of the member of congress are within a district and they are responsible for that district. The Congressman or Congresswoman must
What is the U.S.S. Constitution and why is she so important? The U.S.S. Constitution is one of America's most prestigious ships and is undefeated in battle. In the war of 1812, she was the most cutting-edge technology. In fact, cannonballs bounced off her sides, giving her the nickname “Old Ironsides.” The Constitution was manned by the most trained and capable crews. Furthermore, she is the oldest commissioned ship in the world still afloat and is also America's Ship of State. The U.S.S. Constitution's victories at sea during the War of 1812 inspired the nation and marked the emergence of the United States as a naval power.