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Senate

 
US Government Guide: Senate
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All states are represented equally in the U.S. Senate by two senators (in contrast to the House of Representatives, where a state's representation is in proportion to the size of the state's population). Senators serve six-year terms and are divided into three “classes,” so that only one class, or one-third of the Senate, is up for election every two years. With two-thirds of its membership carrying over after each election, the Senate is a “continuing body.” These longer terms (House members serve only two years) were intended to insulate the Senate—more than the House—from sudden shifts in public opinion.

The equality of the states' representation in the Senate, regardless of the size of the population, was designed to protect the smaller states. The Senate adopted rules that further enhanced minority rights. A small minority of senators, even a minority of one, can use the rules to delay or defeat objectionable legislation. The Senate's toleration of unlimited debate, in the form of the filibuster, has been its most notable difference from the House, whose rules favor the majority.

Although both houses of Congress share essentially the same powers, the Senate has the sole power of “advice and consent,” to confirm the President's nominations and to ratify treaties. The Vice President serves as president (or presiding officer) of the Senate, and the senators elect their other officers. Like the House, the Senate determines its own rules and disciplines its own members. The Senate also sits as a court of impeachment once the House has voted to impeach, or formally accuse, a federal officer.

Initially, the Senate met in secret session, and even after it opened its doors in 1794 it operated for years in the shadow of the House. But during the 1830s the Senate emerged as a powerful counterforce to the strong Presidency of Andrew Jackson. Such rivals to Jackson as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster used the Senate as their forum, and a new political party, the Whigs, developed around them. Because senators were evenly divided between free and slave states, the Senate became the center of efforts to preserve the Union. Senators sought legislative compromise to calm popular passions, but decades of compromise could not prevent the Civil War.

Senate leadership

The decades after the Civil War saw powerful committee chairmen exert strong party leadership over the Senate. By 1900 journalists were pointing to the Senate Four—Republicans Nelson Aldrich, William Allison, John C. Spooner, and Orville Platt—as being so influential that they could “block and defeat anything that the president or the House may desire.” Press criticism of the Senate as a “millionaires' club,” more responsive to powerful corporations than to public opinion, resulted in the 17th Amendment in 1913. It gave the privilege of electing senators to the voters rather than to state legislatures.

Throughout its first century, the Senate acted as a body of equals without official floor leaders. The position of majority leader emerged in 1913, when Democratic Caucus chairman John Worth Kern took on the role of directing his party's initiatives on the floor. The parties formalized the posts of majority and minority leader in the 1920s, and the leaders took the front-row seats on either side of the center aisle. Senate rules give the leaders the right of “first recognition,” meaning that the presiding officer must recognize them to speak before any other senators.

A clublike atmosphere

The atmosphere of the Senate has been compared to that of an exclusive club. Within that club developed an “inner club” made up of powerful committee chairmen and ranking minority party members. The “inner club” drew its membership largely from conservative Southern Democratic committee chairmen and generally excluded junior members and Northern liberals. During the 1950s Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat-Texas) began to change this structure by appointing freshmen senators to important committees rather than making them spend years in apprenticeships on lesser committees. Johnson's successor as majority leader, Mike Mansfield (Democrat-Missouri), furthered the trend by spreading power more equally among all senators.

While the upper houses of most parliaments (such as the British House of Lords) have declined in influence in the 20th century, the Senate remains a powerful legislative body. As the Constitution intended, the Senate serves to balance the House, just as the Congress as a whole checks and balances the executive and judiciary branches of the government.

See also Advice and consent; Bicameral; Committees, congressional; Filibuster; House-Senate Relations; “Inner club”; Leadership in Congress; “Millionaires' club”; Nominations, confirmation of; Treaty powers

Sources

  • Richard A. Baker, The United States Senate: A Bicentennial History (Malabar, Fla.: Krieger, 1987).
  • George E. Reedy, The U.S. Senate: Paralysis or a Search for Consensus? (New York: Crown, 1986).
  • Donald A. Ritchie, The Senate (New York: Chelsea House, 1988)
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US History Companion: Senate
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The Framers of the Constitution created the U.S. Senate as a safeguard for the rights of states and minority opinion in a powerful national government. They modeled the Senate on colonial governors' councils and on the state senates that had evolved from them. James Madison explained that the Senate's role was "first to protect the people against their rulers [and] secondly to protect the people against the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led."

To balance power between the large and small states at the Constitutional Convention, the Framers agreed that states would be represented equally in the Senate and in proportion to their populations in the House. Further preserving the authority of individual states, the Framers provided that state legislatures would elect senators. To guarantee senators' independence from short-term political pressures, the Framers assigned them a six-year term, three times as long as that of popularly elected House members. Madison reasoned that longer terms would provide stability. "If it not be a firm body," he concluded, "the other branch being more numerous, and coming immediately from the people, will overwhelm it." Responding to fears that a six-year Senate term would produce an untouchable aristocracy capable of conspiratorial behavior, the Framers specified that one-third of the terms would expire every two years, thus combining the principles of continuity and rotation in office.

In the early weeks of the Constitutional Convention, the Framers had tentatively decided to give the Senate sole power to make treaties and appoint federal judges and ambassadors. As the convention drew to a close, however, they moved to divide these powers between the Senate and the president, following Gouverneur Morris's reasoning that "as the president was to nominate, there would be responsibility, and as the Senate was to concur, there would be security." Consent to the ratification of a treaty would require a two-thirds vote, reflecting the concern of individual states that other states might combine against them, by a simple majority vote, for commercial or economic gain. In dealing with nominations, senators as statewide officials would be uniquely qualified to identify suitable candidates for federal judicial posts and would confirm them, along with cabinet secretaries and other key federal officials, by a simple majority vote.

The First Senate convened on March 4, 1789, in an elegant second-floor chamber of New York City's newly remodeled Federal Hall. Present were only eight of the twenty-two members from the eleven states that had then ratified the Constitution. On April 6 the twelve members necessary to provide a quorum answered the roll call and got down to business. The Senate elected New Hampshire's John Langdon president pro tempore and invited the House of Representatives to its chamber to count the electoral ballots for president and vice president. On April 21 John Adams took his oath as vice president, thereby assuming his responsibility under the Constitution to serve as the Senate's president. Nine days later, House members again crowded into the Senate chamber to witness George Washington's inauguration.

In its first session the Senate cautiously engaged its constitutional responsibilities, mindful of the precedent-setting nature of its every action. Senators gave serious attention to their duty to provide advice and consent to the president's nominations and treaties. A Georgia senator's objection to an appointment of a naval officer in his state resulted in the first Senate rejection of a presidential nominee. This reflected the understanding that senators were the best judges of appointees from their states to which other members would defer as a matter of "senatorial courtesy." When President Washington visited the Senate in August 1789 to consult about a recently negotiated Indian treaty, he expected an immediate response. To his frustration, the Senate referred the issue to committee for further study. After Washington received Senate approval, he vowed that he would never again seek the chamber's advice and consent in person.

The Senate's work load increased greatly during the final weeks of the 1789 session. This accorded with the Framers' notion that the House would serve as the principal workshop for crafting legislation, while the Senate would pass on the representatives' handiwork, polishing and reworking in consideration of what were presumably the nation's broader and longer-term interests. In a second session convened in January 1790, the Senate turned to legislation that would place the nation on a firm financial footing and provided for a permanent seat of government in a special federal district along the Potomac River. While that site was being prepared, Congress agreed to move the government to Philadelphia, where the final session of the First Congress met between December 1790 and March 1791.

During its ten-year residence in Philadelphia, the Senate conducted its proceedings in the second-floor chamber of that city's recently reconstructed "Congress Hall." That chamber witnessed the rise of political parties as the principal determinants of legislative debate and accomplishment.

A clash in 1794 between Federalists and Antifederalists over the seating of newly elected Pennsylvania Antifederalist senator Albert Gallatin brought a partial abandonment of the Senate's closed-door policy. Like the Constitutional Convention, but in contrast to the House, the Senate in 1789 had decided to conduct its sessions behind closed doors. In 1794 members of the Federalist majority feared that their planned rejection of Gallatin on questionable constitutional grounds would trigger charges of arbitrary behavior if done in secret. Opposition to the closed-door policy came principally from the state legislatures, whose members argued that they could not effectively assess the conduct of the senators they had elected if they operated in secret. Press coverage of open sessions in the House of Representatives helped popularize that body's role. The Senate was in danger of becoming the forgotten chamber. (The same attitude played a part when the Senate decided to allow its proceedings to be televised in 1986, seven years after the House.) Consequently, the Senate opened its doors for all legislative business, although the doors would remain closed for executive business related to presidential nominations and treaties until 1929.

On November 21, 1800, the Senate took up residence in basement quarters in the unfinished Capitol at Washington. In the following decade, the Senate moved to a grander chamber on the Capitol's second floor, where it remained until 1859. This large, semicircular room, with its plain walls and low-vaulted domed ceiling, provided an ideal setting, both acoustically and dramatically, for the Senate as it moved into its so-called golden age. Although the Senate operated in the shadow of the larger and more boisterous House of Representatives for the first three decades after its move to Washington, it dominated the House and the presidency, with the exception of the Civil War years, for the remainder of the nineteenth century.

In 1833 the Senate's membership had risen to only 48, compared with 242 in the House of Representatives. With fewer numbers and equal balance between slave and free states, the Senate offered a forum better suited to lively and discursive debate. In the face of growing national tensions associated with federal authority versus states' rights and the extension of slavery into the nation's territories, the Senate served as a workshop for fashioning major compromise agreements. In this era Daniel Webster most dramatically articulated northern interests; John C. Calhoun those of the South; and Henry Clay, Thomas Hart Benton, and Stephen A. Douglas those of the West. The sectional accords they vigorously debated bought time for a maturing nation. When civil war could no longer be held back, the national government had amassed the experience, balance, and strength to guarantee its survival under the Constitution.

The nation's territorial expansion in this era produced five new states between 1845 and 1850, and new quarters were needed to accommodate the additional members. On January 4, 1859, the Senate's sixty-four members moved to a larger chamber in the Capitol's newly completed north wing. This room, in which the Senate has met since that day, witnessed the crisis of the Civil War. In 1868, amid the turmoil of postwar reconstruction, it provided the setting for President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. (Seven years later Johnson would become the only former president to return to serve in the Senate.)

The Republican party controlled the Senate's majority from 1861 to 1913, with the exception of the 1879 and 1893 Congresses. During the final decades of the nineteenth century, chairmen of major committees exercised great power on the Senate floor. Most members, viewing the Senate as a way station in a political or business career, served only a single term. In an institution that had come to assign power on the basis of seniority, a few long-term senators, through the newly developed party caucus system, controlled key legislative strategy decisions.

In 1913 the Democrats won control and established the position of majority floor leader to push through the party's legislative agenda. Within a decade the post of party floor leader achieved the primacy in conducting the Senate's business that it possesses in modern times. A second major change in the Senate's structure occurred in 1913 with the ratification of the Constitution's Seventeenth Amendment, providing for direct popular election of senators. Selection of senators by state legislatures had worked reasonably well for half a century, but eventually deadlocks began to occur between the upper and lower houses of those bodies. This delayed state legislative business and deprived states of their full Senate representation. By the start of the twentieth century, direct popular election of senators had become a major objective for progressive reformers who sought to remove control of government from the influence of special interests and corrupt state legislators. Although this amendment did not significantly affect the quality of persons subsequently elected to the Senate, its passage marked the only structural modification of the Framers' original design of the institution.

The Constitution's Framers would likely recognize several of the modern Senate's roles, particularly its unique constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent to nominations and treaties. During the Senate's first two centuries it objected to few cabinet nominees and rejected only eight. This reflected an attitude that presidents were entitled to choose their own advisers, unless those officials clearly demonstrated unfitness to serve. The Senate gave greater scrutiny, however, to judicial nominees with lifetime tenure. Directing particular attention to the Supreme Court, the Senate rejected approximately 20 percent of those nominated to the nation's highest tribunal. Of the thousands of treaties submitted, the Senate turned down fewer than two dozen, but it routinely influenced treaty negotiations with threats of modification through the addition of amendments, reservations, or understandings.

The Framers would also find much in the Senate, as in modern America, that would surprise them. They would surely be amazed that the Senate has grown to one hundred members, with seven thousand staff members housed in immense office buildings, or that members tend to view service as a long-term career. And they would be surprised at the importance the Senate accords to its committee system. In its earliest years, the Senate relied on temporary committees to draft specific legislative language after the entire body had reached a consensus regarding a measure's general objectives. The War of 1812 demonstrated the need for consistently available expertise based in permanent, or standing, committees. In 1816, the Senate established permanent committees organized according to the broad categories of the president's annual message. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Senate committees proliferated. At a time when only committee chairmen had staff and office space, the number of committees nearly equaled the number of members. In 1920 and again after World War II, the Senate eliminated many committees. Since the 1950s the Senate has provided committees with significant professional staff resources and has enacted reforms to minimize the autocratic control by chairs that had existed earlier.

Since the 1920s Senate committees have taken on a greater investigative role. Among the most notable special investigations have been those of oil leasing in the 1920s, securities regulation in the 1930s, war profiteering in the 1940s, organized crime in the 1950s, Vietnam in the 1960s, Watergate in the 1970s, and covert intelligence operations in the 1980s. Through its combined investigative and legislative powers, the Senate has sought to preserve its balance with the presidency, supporting presidential initiatives while maintaining vigilant oversight of executive branch operations.

In retrospect, the Constitution's Framers would appreciate the Senate's passion for deliberation, its untidiness, its aloofness from the House of Representatives, and its suspicion of the presidency. Neither they nor most of the eighteen hundred persons (including sixteen women) who served as senators during the first two hundred years would be surprised at the continuing calls for reform. Viewed over the broad sweep of its history, the U.S. Senate has demonstrated the ability to balance faithfulness to the Constitution's principles with requirements for measured change in response to the complex demands of a diverse society.

Bibliography:

Richard Allan Baker, The Senate of the United States: A Bicentennial History (1988); Robert C. Byrd, The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate, 2 vols. (1988, 1990).

Author:

Richard Allan Baker

See also Calhoun, John C.; Clay, Henry; Constitution; Douglas, Stephen A.; House of Representatives; McCarthy, Joseph R.; Philadelphia Convention; Sumner, Charles; Webster, Daniel.


Law Encyclopedia: Senate
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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The upper chamber, or smaller branch, of the U.S. Congress. The upper chamber of the legislature of most of the states.

The U.S. Constitution reserves for the Senate special powers not available to the other branch of Congress, the House of Representatives. These powers include the trial of all impeachments of federal officials; the ratification, by a two-thirds vote, of all treaties obtained by the president of the United States; and approval or rejection of all presidential appointments to the federal judiciary, ambassadorships, cabinet positions, and other significant executive branch posts.

The Senate, with terms of six years for its members — as opposed to two years for members of the House of Representatives — and a tradition of unlimited debate, has long prided itself as the more deliberate of the two branches of Congress. Under its rules a senator may speak on an issue indefinitely, which is known as the filibuster. Sixty senators present and voting may pass a motion of cloture to stop debate.

Members

Under Article II, Section 3, of the Constitution, the Senate is made up of two members from each state, each of whom has one vote. Unlike the House of Representatives, in which the entire chamber is up for election every two years, only one-third of the senators are up for reelection every two years.

The Constitution requires that a senator be at least thirty years of age and a U.S. citizen for a minimum of nine years. A senator must make her legal residence in the state that she represents.

The Constitution originally provided for the election of senators by state legislatures. However, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1913, mandated the election of senators by popular vote. The Senate may punish members for disorderly behavior. With the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators, it can expel a member.

When a vacancy occurs in the representation of any state in the Senate, the governor of that state issues a writ of election to fill the vacancy. The state legislature, however, can empower the governor to make a temporary appointment until the people fill the vacancy through an election.

The vice president of the United States is president of the Senate but has no vote unless the senators are equally divided on a question. His vote breaks the tie.

Committees

The Senate uses a committee system to evaluate, draft, and amend legislation before it is submitted to the full chamber. During the 104th Congress (1995-97), the Senate had sixteen standing, or permanent, committees: Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Budget; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Foreign Relations; Governmental Affairs; Judiciary; Labor and Human Resources; Rules and Administration; Small Business; and Veterans' Affairs. The committees have an average of six to seven subcommittees. Senators typically belong to three committees and eight subcommittees. The Senate also has joint committees with the House, special committees, and investigative committees.

Officers

The vice president acts as the president of the Senate. In the vice president's absence, that position is filled by the president pro tempore, who is usually the most senior senator of the majority party. The majority leader has significant powers in the appointment of majority senators to committees. Political parties also elect majority and minority leaders to lead their efforts in the Senate. They are assisted by an assistant floor leader (whip) and a party secretary.

Other Senate officers include the secretary, who oversees Senate finances and official Senate pronouncements related to impeachment proceedings and treaty ratification, and the sergeant at arms, who serves as the law enforcement and protocol officer and organizes ceremonial functions.

See: Congress of the United States; Constitution of the United States.

Politics: Senate, United States
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The upper house of the United States Congress. Two senators are elected from each state, regardless of state population, guaranteeing each state equal representation. Senators are elected for six-year terms. The Senate tends to respond more directly than the House of Representatives to issues of national, rather than local, concern, though both houses of Congress participate in all aspects of legislation and policymaking. The Senate has the exclusive right to try cases of impeachment, approve presidential appointments, confirm treaties, and elect a vice president if no candidate receives a majority from the Electoral College. The vice president serves as presiding officer of the Senate.

Wikipedia: United States Senate
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For the current Congress, see 111th United States Congress.
United States Senate
111th United States Congress
Coat of arms or logo.
Type
Type Upper house
Leadership
President of the Senate Joe Biden, (D)
since January 20, 2009
President pro tempore Robert Byrd, (D)
since January 4, 2007
Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D)
since January 4, 2007
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, (R)
since January 4, 2007
Structure
Members 100
Political groups Democratic Caucus
(60 members)
Republican Conference
(40 members)
111th United States Senate Structure.svg
Election
Last election November 4, 2008
Meeting place
110th US Senate class photo.jpg
Senate Chamber
United States Capitol
Washington, D.C.
United States
Website
http://www.senate.gov

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution (which does not use the terms "upper" and "lower"). Each U.S state is represented by two senators, regardless of population. This ensures equal representation of each state in the Senate. Senators serve staggered six-year terms. The chamber of the United States Senate is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C., the national capital. The House of Representatives convenes in the south wing of the same building.

The Senate has several exclusive powers not granted to the House, including consenting to treaties as a precondition to their ratification and consenting or confirmation of appointments of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges, other federal executive officials, military officers and other federal uniformed officers, as well as the impeachment trials of federal officials. The Senate is a more deliberative body than the House of Representatives because the Senate is smaller and its members serve longer terms, allowing for a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere that is somewhat more insulated from public opinion than the House. The Senate is considered a more prestigious body than the House of Representatives because of its longer terms, smaller membership, and larger constituencies.

Contents

History

Main article: History of the United States Senate

The Framers of the Constitution created a bicameral Congress primarily as a compromise between those who felt that each state, since it was sovereign, should be equally represented, and those who felt the Legislature must directly represent the People, as did the House of Commons in Britain. There was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a "People's House" directly elected by the People, and with short terms obliging the Representatives to remain close to their constituents. The other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignties not expressly delegated to the national government. The Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation.

The Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate. The name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders (from senex meaning old man in Latin).[1]

The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that state's consent. The District of Columbia and all other territories (Territories, Protectorates, etc.) are not entitled to any representation in either House of the Congress.[2] The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 Senators since 1959.

The disparity between the most and least populous state has grown since the crafting of the Great Compromise, which granted each state equal representation in the Senate and a minimum of three Presidential Electors, regardless of population. In 1787, Virginia had roughly 10 times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming, based on the 1790 and 2000 censuses. Seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned by population.

Before the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, senators were elected by the individual state legislatures.[3] However, problems with repeated vacant seats due to the inability of a legislature to elect senators, intrastate political struggles, and even bribery and intimidation gradually led to a growing movement to amend the Constitution to allow for the direct election of senators.[4]

Membership

Qualifications

This article is part of the series:
United States Senate
Great Seal of the United States Senate
Members
Current
(by seniority · by age · by class)
Former
Hill committees (DSCC, NRSC)
U.S. Vice President
President pro tempore (list)
Presiding officer
Party leaders and Assistants

Democratic Caucus
Republican Conference
Politics and procedure
Advice and consent
Closed session (list)
Cloture · Committees (list)
Executive session · Filibuster
History · Quorum  · Quorum call
Recess appointment · Salaries
Seal  · Standing Rules · Traditions
Unanimous consent
VPs' tie-breaking votes
Places
United States Capitol
Senate office buildings
(Dirksen · Hart · Russell)

Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for senators: 1) each senator must be at least 30 years old, 2) must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years, and 3) must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state he or she seeks to represent. The age and citizenship qualifications for senators are more stringent than those for representatives. In Federalist No. 62, James Madison justified this arrangement by arguing that the "senatorial trust" called for a "greater extent of information and stability of character."

The Senate (not the judiciary) is the sole judge of a senator's qualifications. During its early years, however, the Senate did not closely scrutinize the qualifications of members. As a result, three senators who failed to meet the age qualification were nevertheless admitted to the Senate: Henry Clay (aged 29 in 1806), and Armistead Thomson Mason (aged 28 in 1816) and John Eaton (aged 28 in 1818). Such an occurrence, however, has not been repeated since.[5] In 1934, Rush D. Holt, Sr. was elected to the Senate at the age of 29; he waited until he turned 30 to take the oath of office. Likewise, Joe Biden was elected to the Senate shortly before his 30th birthday in 1972; he had passed his 30th birthday by the time the Senate conducted its swearing-in ceremony for that year's electees in January 1973.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution disqualifies from the Senate any federal or state officer who had taken the requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engaged in rebellion or aided the enemies of the United States. This provision, which came into force soon after the end of the Civil War, was intended to prevent those who sided with the Confederacy from serving. That Amendment, however, also provides a method to remove that disqualification: a two-thirds vote of both chambers of Congress.

Elections and term

See also: Members of the 111th United States Congress and Elections in the United States

Originally, senators were selected by the state legislatures, not by popular elections. By the early years of the 20th century, the legislatures of as many as 29 states had provided for popular election of senators by means of referendums.[6] Popular election to the Senate was standardized nationally in 1913 by the ratification of the 17th Amendment.

Term

Senators serve terms of six years each; the terms are staggered so that approximately one-third of the seats are up for election every two years. This was achieved by dividing the senators of the 1st Congress into thirds (called classes), where the terms of one-third expired after two years, the terms of another third expired after four, and the terms of the last third expired after six years. This arrangement is also implemented following the admission of new states into the union. The staggering of the terms is arranged to ensure that both seats from a given state are never contested in the same general election except when a mid-term vacancy is being filled. Current senators whose six-year terms will expire on January 3, 2011, belong to Class III.

A member who has been elected, but not yet seated, is called a "senator-elect"; a member who has been appointed to a seat, but not yet seated, is called a "senator-designate".

Elections

Elections to the Senate are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years, Election Day, and coincide with elections for the House of Representatives.[7] Each senator is elected by his or her state as a whole. In most states (since 1970), a primary election is held first for the Republican and Democratic parties, with the general election following a few months later. Ballot access rules for independent and minor party candidates vary from state to state. The winner is the candidate who receives a plurality of the popular vote. In some states, runoffs are held if no candidate wins a majority.

Mid-term vacancies

The 17th Amendment also mandates special elections to fill mid-term vacancies, but state legislatures may empower the governor of the state to fill the seat by an appointment until the winner of the special election is certified. Forty-five states permit such appointments as of 2009. Oregon and Wisconsin require special elections for vacancies, and Oklahoma permits the governor to appoint only the winner of a special election.[8] In September 2009, Massachusetts changed its law to enable the governor to appoint a temporary replacement for the late Senator Kennedy until the special election in January 2010.[9][10] In 2004, Alaska enacted legislation and a separate ballot referendum that took effect on the same day, but that conflicted with each other. The effect of the ballot-approved law is to withhold from the governor authority to appoint a senator.[11] Because the 17th Amendment vests the power to grant that authority to the legislature, not the people or the state generally, it is unclear whether the ballot measure supplants the legislature's statute granting that authority.[11] As a result, it is uncertain whether an Alaska governor may appoint an interim senator to serve until a special election is held to fill the vacancy.

Oath

United States

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The Constitution requires that senators take an oath to support the Constitution.[12] Congress has prescribed the following oath for new senators:

“ I, A— B—, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.[13] ”

Salary and benefits

The annual salary of each senator, as of 2009, is $174,000;[14] the President pro tempore and party leaders receive $193,400.[15] In June 2003, at least 40 of the then-senators were millionaires.[16]

Along with earning salaries, senators receive retirement and health benefits that are identical to other federal employees, and are fully vested after five years of service.[15] Senators are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) or Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). As it is for federal employees, congressional retirement is funded through taxes and the participants' contributions. Under FERS, senators contribute 1.3% of their salary into the FERS retirement plan and pay 6.2% of their salary in Social Security taxes. The amount of a senator's pension depends on the years of service and the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary. The starting amount of a senator's retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary. In 2006, the average annual pension for retired senators and representatives under CSRS was $60,972, while those who retired under FERS, or in combination with CSRS, was $35,952.[15]

Political prominence

Senators are regarded as more prominent political figures than members of the House of Representatives because there are fewer of them, and because they serve for longer terms, usually represent larger constituencies (the exception being House at-large districts, which similarly comprise entire states), sit on more committees, and have more staffers. Far more senators have been nominees for the presidency than Representatives. Furthermore, three senators (Warren Harding, John Kennedy, and Barack Obama) have been elected President while serving in the Senate, while only one Representative (James Garfield) has been elected President while serving in the House.

Seniority

Main article: Seniority in the United States Senate

According to the convention of Senate seniority, the senator with the longer tenure in each state is known as the "senior senator"; the other is the "junior senator". This convention, however, does not have any official significance, though it is a factor in the selection of physical offices.[citation needed] In the 111th Congress, the most-senior "junior senator" is Tom Harkin of Iowa, who was sworn in on January 3, 1985 and is currently 14th in seniority. The most-junior "senior senator" is Mark Udall of Colorado, who was sworn in on January 3, 2009—just two weeks before the state's junior senator, Michael Bennet – and is currently 85th in seniority.

Expulsion and other disciplinary actions

The Senate may expel a senator by a two-thirds vote. Fifteen senators have been expelled in the history of the Senate: William Blount, for treason, in 1797, and fourteen in 1861 and 1862 for supporting the Confederate secession. Although no senator has been expelled since 1862, many senators have chosen to resign when faced with expulsion proceedings — for example, Bob Packwood in 1995. The Senate has also censured and condemned senators; censure requires only a simple majority and does not remove a senator from office. Some senators have opted to withdraw from their re-election races rather than face certain censure or expulsion, such as Robert Torricelli in 2002.

Vacancies

The Seventeenth Amendment provides that "the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct." Some states provide for a special election to fill a vacancy. A special election for a Senate seat need not be held immediately after the vacancy arises; instead, it is typically conducted at the same time as the next biennial congressional election. If a special election for one seat happens to coincide with a general election for the state's other seat, then the two elections are not combined, but are instead contested separately. A senator elected in a special election takes office immediately and serves until the original six-year term expires, and not for a full term. Furthermore, any state legislature may empower its governor to temporarily fill vacancies. The interim appointee remains in office until the special election can be held. The states of Alaska[17] and Massachusetts[18][19][20] do not authorize the Governor to make temporary appointments.[21][22]

In 2009, Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russ Feingold announced he would introduce a bill proposing a constitutional amendment to require Senate vacancies be filled by election, as the Constitution already requires for vacancies in the House of Representatives.[23][24][25]

Majority and minority parties

The "Majority party" is the political party which either has a majority of seats or can form a coalition or caucus with a majority of seats; if two or more parties are tied, the Vice President's affiliation determines which party is the majority party. The next-largest party is known as the minority party. The President pro tempore, committee chairmen, and some other officials are generally from the majority party; they have counterparts (for instance, the "ranking members" of committees) in the minority party. Independents and members of third parties (so long as they do not caucus with or support either of the larger parties) are not considered in determining which is the majority party.

Officers

The Senate side of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The Vice President of the United States presides over the Senate, but the party leaders have the real power and they control procedure. Many non-member "officers" are also hired to run the day-to-day functions of the Senate.

Presiding over the Senate

The Vice President of the United States ex officio is the President of the Senate, with authority to preside over the Senate's sessions, although he can vote only to break a tie. Although for decades the task of presiding over Senate sessions was one of the Vice President's principal duties, during the past 50 years the convention has been that the Vice President presides over very few Senate debates, attending only on ceremonial occasions (such as the swearing-in of new senators or during joint sessions or joint meetings) or at times when the potential for a tie vote on an important issue is anticipated. The Constitution authorizes the Senate to elect a President pro tempore (Latin for "president for a time") to preside in the Vice President's absence; the most senior senator of the majority party is customarily chosen to serve in this position. Like the Vice President, the President pro tempore does not normally preside over the Senate, but typically delegates the responsibility of presiding to junior senators of the majority party, usually in blocks of one hour on a rotating basis. Frequently, freshmen senators (newly elected members) are asked to preside so that they may become accustomed to the rules and procedures of the body.

The presiding officer sits in a chair in the front of the Senate chamber. The powers of the presiding officer of the Senate are far less extensive than those of the Speaker of the House. The presiding officer calls on senators to speak (by the rules of the Senate, the first senator who rises is recognized); ruling on points of order (objections by senators that a rule has been breached, subject to appeal to the whole chamber); and announcing the results of votes.

Party leaders

Each party elects Senate party leaders. Floor leaders act as the party chief spokespeople. The Senate Majority Leader is responsible for controlling the agenda of the chamber; for example, by scheduling debates and votes. Each party elects a whip, or "assistant leader"; the whip works to ensure that his party's senators vote as the party leadership desires.

Non-member officers

The Senate is served by several officials who are not members. The Senate's chief administrative officer is the Secretary of the Senate, who maintains public records, disburses salaries, monitors the acquisition of stationery and supplies, and oversees clerks. The Secretary is aided in his work by the Assistant Secretary of the Senate. Another official is the Sergeant at Arms, who, as the Senate's chief law enforcement officer, maintains order and security on the Senate premises. The Capitol Police handles routine police work, with the Sergeant at Arms primarily responsible for general oversight. Other employees include the Chaplain, who is elected by the Senate, and Pages, who are appointed.

Procedure

Daily sessions

A typical Senate desk

The Senate uses Standing Rules of the Senate for operation. Like the House of Representatives, the Senate meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. At one end of the Chamber of the Senate is a dais from which the presiding officer presides. The lower tier of the dais is used by clerks and other officials. One hundred desks are arranged in the Chamber in a semicircular pattern and are divided by a wide central aisle. By tradition, Republicans sit to the right of the center aisle and Democrats to the left, facing the presiding officer.[26] Each senator chooses a desk based on seniority within his party. By custom, the leader of each party sits in the front row along the center aisle. Sessions of the Senate are opened with a special prayer or invocation and typically convene on weekdays. Sessions of the Senate are generally open to the public and are broadcast live on television, usually by C-SPAN 2.

Senate procedure depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs and traditions. In many cases, the Senate waives some of its stricter rules by unanimous consent. Unanimous consent agreements are typically negotiated beforehand by party leaders. Any senator may block such an agreement, but in practice objections are rare. The presiding officer enforces the rules of the Senate, and may warn members who deviate from them. The presiding officer sometimes uses the gavel of the Senate to maintain order.

A "hold" is placed when the Leader's office is notified that a senator intends to object to a request for unanimous consent from the Senate to consider or pass a measure. A hold may be placed for any reason and can be lifted by a senator at any time. A senator may place a hold simply to review a bill, to negotiate changes to the bill, or to kill the bill. A bill can be held for as long as the senator who objects to the bill wishes to block its consideration.

Holds can be overcome, but require time-consuming procedures such as filing cloture. Holds are considered to be private communications between a senator and the Leader, and are sometimes referred to as "secret holds." A senator may disclose that he or she has placed a hold.

The Constitution provides that a majority of the Senate constitutes a quorum to do business. Under the rules and customs of the Senate, a quorum is always assumed to be present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise. Any senator may request a quorum call by "suggesting the absence of a quorum"; a clerk then calls the roll of the Senate and notes which members are present. In practice, senators rarely request quorum calls to establish the presence of a quorum. Instead, quorum calls are generally used to temporarily delay proceedings; usually such delays are used while waiting for a senator to reach the floor to speak or to give leaders time to negotiate. Once the need for a delay has ended, any senator may request unanimous consent to rescind the quorum call.

During debates, senators may only speak if called upon by the presiding officer, but the presiding officer is required to recognize the first senator who rises to speak. Thus, the presiding officer has little control over the course of debate. Customarily, the Majority Leader and Minority Leader are accorded priority during debates even if another senator rises first. All speeches must be addressed to the presiding officer, who is addressed as "Mr. President" or "Madam President", and not to another member; other Members must be referred to in the third person. In most cases, senators do not refer to each other by name, but by state or position, using forms such as "the senior senator from Virginia", "the gentlewoman from California", or "my distinguished friend the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee".

Apart from rules governing civility, there are very few restrictions on the content of speeches; there is no requirement that speeches be germane to the matter before the Senate.

The rules of the Senate provide that no senator may make more than two speeches on a motion or bill on the same legislative day. A legislative day begins when the Senate convenes and ends with adjournment; hence, it does not necessarily coincide with the calendar day. The length of these speeches is not limited by the rules; thus, in most cases, senators may speak for as long as they please. Often, the Senate adopts unanimous consent agreements imposing time limits. In other cases (for example, for the budget process), limits are imposed by statute However, the right to unlimited debate is generally preserved.

The filibuster is a tactic used to defeat bills and motions by prolonging debate indefinitely. A filibuster may entail long speeches, dilatory motions, and an extensive series of proposed amendments. The Senate may end a filibuster by invoking cloture. In most cases, cloture requires the support of three-fifths of the Senate; however, if the matter before the Senate involves changing the rules of the body– this includes amending provisions regarding the filibuster– a two-thirds majority is required. In current practice, the threat of filibuster is of more importance than its actual use; almost any motion that does not have the support of three-fifths of the Senate effectively fails. Cloture is invoked rarely, particularly because bipartisan support is usually necessary to obtain the required supermajority, and a bill that already has bipartisan support is rarely subject to threats of filibuster. If the Senate does invoke cloture, debate does not end immediately; instead, further debate is limited to 30 additional hours unless increased by another three-fifths vote. The longest filibuster speech in the history of the Senate was delivered by Strom Thurmond, who spoke for over 24 hours in an unsuccessful attempt to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.[27]

When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote. In many cases, the Senate votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and Members respond either "Aye" (in favor of the motion) or "No" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote. Any senator, however, may challenge the presiding officer's assessment and request a recorded vote. The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the senators present. In practice, however, senators second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy. When a recorded vote is held, the clerk calls the roll of the Senate in alphabetical order; each senator responds when his or her name is called. Senators who miss the roll call may still cast a vote as long as the recorded vote remains open. The vote is closed at the discretion of the presiding officer, but must remain open for a minimum of 15 minutes. If the vote is tied, the Vice President, if present, is entitled to a casting vote. If the Vice President is not present, the motion fails.

On occasion, the Senate may go into what is called a secret or closed session. During a closed session, the chamber doors are closed, and the galleries are completely cleared of anyone not sworn to secrecy, not instructed in the rules of the closed session, or not essential to the session. Closed sessions are quite rare and usually held only when the Senate is discussing sensitive subject matter such as information critical to national security, private communications from the President, or deliberations during impeachment trials. Any senator may call for and force a closed session as long as the motion is seconded by at least one other member, but an agreement usually occurs beforehand.[28] If the Senate does not approve release of a secret transcript, the transcript is stored in the Office of Senate Security and ultimately sent to the national archives. The proceedings remain sealed indefinitely until the Senate votes to remove the injunction of secrecy.[29]

Calendars

The Senate maintains a Senate Calendar and an Executive Calendar.[30] The former identifies bills and resolutions awaiting Senate floor actions. The latter identifies executive resolutions, treaties, and nominations reported out by Senate committee(s) and awaiting Senate floor action. Both are updated each day the Senate is in session.

Committees

Dirksen Senate Office Building Committee Room 226 is used for hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Main article: U.S. Congressional committee
See List of United States Senate committees for the full list.

The Senate uses committees (as well as their subcommittees) for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the oversight of the executive branch. The appointment of committee members is formally made by the whole Senate, but in practice the choice of members is made by the political parties. Generally, each party honors the preferences of individual senators, giving priority based on seniority. Each party is allocated seats on committees in proportion to its overall strength.

Most committee work is performed by 16 standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a specific field such as Finance or Foreign Relations. Each standing committee may consider, amend, and report bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Furthermore, each standing committee considers presidential nominations to offices related to its jurisdiction. (For instance, the Judiciary Committee considers nominees for judgeships, and the Foreign Relations Committee considers nominees for positions in the Department of State.) Committees have extensive powers regarding bills and nominees; they may block nominees and impede bills from reaching the floor of the Senate. Standing committees also oversee the departments and agencies of the executive branch. In discharging their duties, standing committees have the power to hold hearings and to subpoena witnesses and evidence.

The Senate also has several committees that are not considered standing committees. Such bodies are generally known as select or special committees; examples include the Select Committee on Ethics and the Special Committee on Aging. Legislation is referred to some of these committees, although the bulk of legislative work is performed by the standing committees. Committees may be established on an ad hoc basis for specific purposes; for instance, the Senate Watergate Committee was a special committee created to investigate the Watergate scandal. Such temporary committees cease to exist after fulfilling their tasks.

The Congress includes joint committees, which include members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Some joint committees oversee independent government bodies; for instance, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the Library of Congress. Other joint committees serve to make advisory reports; for example, there exists a Joint Committee on Taxation. Bills and nominees are not referred to joint committees. Hence, the power of joint committees is considerably lower than those of standing committees.

Each Senate committee and subcommittee is led by a chairman (usually a member of the majority party). Formerly, committee chairmanship was determined purely by seniority; as a result, several elderly senators continued to serve as chairmen despite severe physical infirmity or even senility.[31] Committee chairmen are elected, but, in practice, seniority is rarely bypassed. The chairmen hold extensive powers: they control the committee's agenda, and so decide how much, if any, time to devote to the consideration of a bill; they act with the power of the committee in disapproving or delaying a bill or a nomination by the president; they manage on the floor of the full Senate the consideration of those bills the committee reports. This last role was particularly important in mid-century, when floor amendments were thought uncollegial. They also have considerable influence: a senator who cooperates with his committee chairman is likely to accomplish more good for his state than one who does not. The Senate rules and customs were reformed in the twentieth century, largely in the 1970s; committee chairmen have somewhat less power, and are in general more moderate and collegial in exercising it, than they were before reform.[32] The second-highest member, the spokesperson on the committee for the minority party, is known in most cases as the Ranking Member.[33] In the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Select Committee on Ethics, however, the senior minority member is known as the Vice Chairman.

Functions of the Senate

Legislative functions

Further information: Act of Congress

Bills may be introduced in either House of Congress. However, the Constitution provides that "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes. Furthermore, the House of Representatives holds that the Senate does not have the power to originate appropriation bills, or bills authorizing the expenditure of federal funds. Historically, the Senate has disputed the interpretation advocated by the House. However, whenever the Senate originates an appropriations bill, the House simply refuses to consider it, thereby settling the dispute in practice. The constitutional provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the British Parliament, in which only the House of Commons may originate such measures.

Although the Constitution gave the House the power to initiate revenue bills, in practice the Senate is equal to the House in the respects of taxation and spending. As Woodrow Wilson wrote:[34]

“ The Senate's right to amend general appropriation bills has been allowed the widest possible scope. The upper house may add to them what it pleases; may go altogether outside of their original provisions and tack to them entirely new features of legislation, altering not only the amounts but even the objects of expenditure, and making out of the materials sent them by the popular chamber measures of an almost totally new character. ”

The approval of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is required for any bill, including a revenue bill, to become law. Both Houses must pass the same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies.

Checks and balances

The Constitution provides several unique functions for the Senate that form its ability to "check and balance" the powers of other elements of the Federal Government. These include the requirement that the Senate may advise and must consent to some of the President's government appointments; also the Senate must ratify all treaties with foreign governments; it tries all impeachments, and it elects the Vice President in the event no person gets a majority of the electoral votes.

The Senate has the power to try impeachments; shown above is Theodore R. Davis' drawing of the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, 1867.

The President can make certain appointments only with the advice and consent of the Senate. Officials whose appointments require the Senate's approval include members of the Cabinet, heads of most federal executive agencies, ambassadors, Justices of the Supreme Court, and other federal judges. Under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, a large number of government appointments are subject to potential confirmation; however, Congress has passed legislation to authorize the appointment of many officials without the Senate's consent (usually, confirmation requirements are reserved for those officials with the most significant final decision-making authority). Typically, a nominee is first subject to a hearing before a Senate committee. Thereafter, the nomination is considered by the full Senate. The majority of nominees are confirmed, but in a small number of cases each year, Senate Committees will purposely fail to act on a nominations to block it. Also, the President sometimes withdraws nominations when they appear unlikely to be confirmed. Because of this, outright rejections of nominees on the Senate Floor are quite infrequent (there have been only nine Cabinet nominees rejected outright in the history of the United States).[citation needed]

The powers of the Senate concerning nominations are, however, subject to some constraints. For instance, the Constitution provides that the President may make an appointment during a congressional recess without the Senate's advice and consent. The recess appointment remains valid only temporarily; the office becomes vacant again at the end of the next congressional session. Nevertheless, Presidents have frequently used recess appointments to circumvent the possibility that the Senate may reject the nominee. Furthermore, as the Supreme Court held in Myers v. United States, although the Senate's advice and consent is required for the appointment of certain executive branch officials, it is not necessary for their removal.[35]

The Senate also has a role in the process of ratifying treaties. The Constitution provides that the President may only ratify a treaty if two-thirds of the senators vote to grant advice and consent. However, not all international agreements are considered treaties, and therefore do not require the Senate's approval. Congress has passed laws authorizing the President to conclude executive agreements without action by the Senate. Similarly, the President may make congressional-executive agreements with the approval of a simple majority in each House of Congress, rather than a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Neither executive agreements nor congressional-executive agreements are mentioned in the Constitution, leading some to suggest that they unconstitutionally circumvent the treaty-ratification process. However, the validity of such agreements has been upheld by courts.[36]

The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. If the sitting President of the United States is being tried, the Chief Justice of the United States presides over the trial. During any impeachment trial, senators are constitutionally required to sit on oath or affirmation. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority of the senators present. A convicted official is automatically removed from office; in addition, the Senate may stipulate that the defendant be banned from holding office in the future. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law.

In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted. (One resigned before the Senate could complete the trial.)[37] Only two Presidents of the United States have ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Both trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

Under the Twelfth Amendment, the Senate has the power to elect the Vice President if no vice presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College. The Twelfth Amendment requires the Senate to choose from the two candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes. Electoral College deadlocks are very rare; in the history of the United States, the Senate has only had to break a deadlock once, in 1837, when it elected Richard Mentor Johnson. The power to elect the President in the case of an Electoral College deadlock belongs to the House of Representatives.

Current composition and election results

Senators' party membership by state
     2 Democrats     1 Democrat and 1 Republican     2 Republicans     1 Democrat and 1 independent in the Democratic Caucus

Current party standings

Main article: List of current United States Senators

The party composition of the Senate as of September 25, 2009:

Affiliation Members Note
  Democratic Party 58
  Republican Party 40
  Independent 2 Both caucus with the Democrats
Total 100

2008 election results

Main article: United States Senate elections, 2008
e • d  Summary of the November 4, 2008 United States Senate election results[38][39][40]
Party Breakdown Seats Popular Vote
Up Elected Not Up 2006 2008 +/− Vote  %
  Democratic Party 12 20 37 49 57 +8 34,276,327  51.86%
  Republican Party 23 15 26 49 41 −8 29,729,539  45.00%
  Libertarian Party 0 0 0 0 0 0 670,231  1.01%
  Independence Party 0 0 0 0 0 0 437,505  0.66%
Green Party 0 0 0 0 0 0 427,418  0.65%
  Constitution Party1 0 0 0 0 0 0 240,726  0.36%
  Independents 0 0 2 2 2 0 242,851  0.37%
Independent Greens 0 0 0 0 0 0 21,690  0.03%
Natural Law 0 0 0 0 0 0 18,550  0.03%
Reform 0 0 0 0 0 0 16,443  0.03%
Socialist Workers Party 0 0 0 0 0 0 9,187  0.01%
Total 35 35 65 100 100 — 66,090,467  100%
Voter turnout:   -.-%
Sources: U.S. Senate, U.S. Senate Popular Vote and FEC Total Receipts by Party

1 The Constitution Party total includes state affiliates


See also

References

  1. ^ "Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: senate". http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/senate. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  2. ^ The District of Columbia elects two shadow senators, but they are officials of the D.C. city government and not members of the U.S. Senate.
  3. ^ Article I, Section 3: "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote."
  4. ^ http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Direct_Election_Senators.htm
  5. ^ 1801-1850, November 16, 1818: Youngest Senator. United States Senate. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
  6. ^ "Direct Election of Senators". U.S. Senate official website. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Direct_Election_Senators.htm. 
  7. ^ 2 U.S.C. § 1
  8. ^ Neale, Thomas H. (March 10, 2009). "Filling U.S. Senate Vacancies: Perspectives and Contemporary Developments". Congressional Research Service. p. 8. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40421_20090310.pdf. 
  9. ^ DeLeo, Robert A. (September 17, 2009). "Temporary Appointment of US Senator". Massachusetts Great and General Court. http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/54-140.htm. 
  10. ^ DeLeo, Robert A. (September 17, 2009). "Temporary Appointment of US Senator Shall not be a candidate in special election". Massachusetts Great and General Court. http://www.mass.gov/legis/ht04248.pdf. 
  11. ^ a b "Stevens could keep seat in Senate". Anchorage Daily News. 2009-10-28. http://www.adn.com/politics/story/569836.html. 
  12. ^ United States Constitution, Article VI
  13. ^ See: 5 U.S.C. § 3331; see also: Standing Rules of the Senate: Rule III
  14. ^ Salaries. United States Senate. Retrieved on April 17, 2009.
  15. ^ a b c USGovInfo.com (accessed April 17, 2009).
  16. ^ Sean Loughlin and Robert Yoon (2003-06-13). "Millionaires populate U.S. Senate". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/13/senators.finances. Retrieved 2006-06-19. 
  17. ^ "Alaska's ballot initiatives". Alaska Division of Elections. August 3, 2006. http://ltgov.state.ak.us/elections/initbal.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-21. 
  18. ^ Zezima, Katie (July 2, 2004). "National Briefing: Massachusetts: Senate Approves Interim-Appointment Bill". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E1D61138F931A35754C0A9629C8B63. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
  19. ^ Greenberger, Scott S. (2004-07-31). "Romney veto overridden: Governor can no longer fill vacancies in the US Senate". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/07/31/romney_veto_overridden/?page=full. Retrieved May 21, 2008. 
  20. ^ "Chapter 236 of the Acts of 2004". Acts of 2004 (Session Laws). The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 2004-07-30. http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw04/sl040236.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
  21. ^ Elections. United States Senate. Retrieved on 19 June 2006.
  22. ^ Anderson, Rob (2004-07-16). "Devil in the Details: After Kerry, The Deluge". The American Prospect. http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=devil_in_the_details_071604. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
  23. ^ Halperin, Mark (January 26, 2009). "Feingold Statement on Amendment Proposal". Time. http://thepage.time.com/feingold-statement-on-amendment-proposal/. 
  24. ^ Thrush, Glenn (January 25, 2009). "Feingold wants Constitutional amendment to ban gov appointments". Politico. http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0109/Feingold_wants_Constitutional_amendment_to_ban_gov_appointments.html?showall. 
  25. ^ Newmark, Betsy (2009-01-26). "Change I Can Believe In — Russ Feingold’s Very Good Idea". The Washington Times. http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/01/26/newmark_kennedy_blago/. 
  26. ^ CRS Report for Congress, "Guide to Individuals Seated on the Senate Dais" (updated May 6, 2008). Accessed 2009-01-06.
  27. ^ Quinton, Jeff. "Thurmond's Filibuster". Backcountry Conservative. 27 July 2003. Retrieved on 19 June 2006.
  28. ^ http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RS20145.pdf
  29. ^ http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/98-718.pdf
  30. ^ "Calendars & Schedules" via Senate.gov
  31. ^ See, for examples, American Dictionary of National Biography on John Sherman and Carter Glass; in general, Ritchie, Congress, p. 209
  32. ^ Ritchie, Congress, p. 44. Zelizer, On Capitol Hill describes this process; one of the reforms is that seniority within the majority party can now be bypassed, so that a chairman does run the risk of being deposed by his colleagues. See in particular p. 17, for the unreformed Congress, and pp.188–9, for the Stevenson reforms of 1977.
  33. ^ Ritchie, Congress, pp .44, 175, 209
  34. ^ Wilson Congressional Government, Chapter III: "Revenue and Supply". Text common to all printings or "editions"; in Papers of Woodrow Wilson it is Vol.4 (1968), p.91; for unchanged text, see p. 13, ibid.
  35. ^ Recess Appointments FAQ (PDF). US Senate, Congressional Research Service. Retrieved on November 20, 2007; Ritchie, Congress p. 178.
  36. ^ For an example, and a discussion of the literature, see Laurence Tribe, "Taking Text and Structure Seriously: Reflections on Free-Form Method in Constitutional Interpretation", Harvard Law Review, Vol. 108, No. 6. (Apr., 1995), pp. 1221–1303.
  37. ^ Complete list of impeachment trials. United States Senate. Retrieved on November 20, 2007
  38. ^ "U.S. Senate". CNN. 2008-11-06. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/main.results/#val=S. Retrieved 2008-11-06. 
  39. ^ "The Green Papers 2008 U.S. Senate Popular Vote and FEC Total Receipts by Party". The Green Papers. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G08/SenateVoteByParty.phtml. Retrieved 2008-11-19. 
  40. ^ "The Green Papers 2008 U.S. Senate Popular Vote and FEC Total Receipts by Party". The Green Papers. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G08/SenateVoteByParty.phtml. Retrieved 2009-06-14. 

Bibliography

Official Senate histories

The following are published by the Senate Historical Office.

Miscellaneous

  • Baker, Richard A. The Senate of the United States: A Bicentennial History Krieger, 1988.
  • Baker, Richard A., ed., First Among Equals: Outstanding Senate Leaders of the Twentieth Century Congressional Quarterly, 1991.
  • Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 1976: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (1975); new edition every 2 years
  • David W. Brady and Mathew D. McCubbins. Party, Process, and Political Change in Congress: New Perspectives on the History of Congress (2002)
  • Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Vol. 3: Master of the Senate. Knopf, 2002.
  • Comiskey, Michael. Seeking Justices: The Judging of Supreme Court Nominees U. Press of Kansas, 2004.
  • Congressional Quarterly Congress and the Nation: 2001–2004: A Review of Government and Politics: 107th and 108th Congresses (2005); massive, highly detailed summary of Congressional activity, as well as major executive and judicial decisions; based on Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report and the annual CQ almanac.
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1997–2001 (2002)
    • Congressional Quarterly. Congress and the Nation: 1993–1996 (1998)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1989–1992 (1993)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1985–1988 (1989)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1981–1984 (1985)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1977–1980 (1981)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1973–1976 (1977)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1969–1972 (1973)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1965–1968 (1969)
    • Congressional Quarterly, Congress and the Nation: 1945–1964 (1965), the first of the series
  • Cooper, John Milton, Jr. Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations. Cambridge U. Press, 2001.
  • Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek, eds. (1998). Congress and Its Members, 6th ed. Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly. (Legislative procedure, informal practices, and member information)
  • Gould, Lewis L. The Most Exclusive Club: A History Of The Modern United States Senate (2005)
  • Hernon, Joseph Martin. Profiles in Character: Hubris and Heroism in the U.S. Senate, 1789–1990 Sharpe, 1997.
  • Hoebeke, C. H. The Road to Mass Democracy: Original Intent and the Seventeenth Amendment. Transaction Books, 1995. (Popular elections of senators)
  • Lee, Frances E. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation. U. of Chicago Press 1999. 304 pp.
  • McFarland, Ernest W. The Ernest W. McFarland Papers: The United States Senate Years, 1940–1952. Prescott, Ariz.: Sharlot Hall Museum, 1995 (Democratic majority leader 1950–52)
  • Malsberger, John W. From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938–1952. Susquehanna U. Press 2000
  • Mann, Robert. The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell and the Struggle for Civil Rights. Harcourt Brace, 1996
  • Ritchie, Donald A. Press Gallery: Congress and the Washington Correspondents. Harvard University Press, 1991.
  • Ritchie, Donald A. The Congress of the United States: A Student Companion Oxford University Press, 2001 (2nd edition).
  • Ritchie, Donald A. Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Rothman, David. Politics and Power the United States Senate 1869–1901 (1966)
  • Swift, Elaine K. The Making of an American Senate: Reconstitutive Change in Congress, 1787–1841. U. of Michigan Press, 1996
  • Valeo, Frank. Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader: A Different Kind of Senate, 1961–1976 Sharpe, 1999 (Senate Democratic leader)
  • VanBeek, Stephen D. Post-Passage Politics: Bicameral Resolution in Congress. U. of Pittsburgh Press 1995
  • Weller, Cecil Edward, Jr. Joe T. Robinson: Always a Loyal Democrat. U. of Arkansas Press, 1998. (Arkansas Democrat who was Majority leader in 1930s)
  • Wilson, Woodrow. Congressional Government. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1885; also 15th ed. 1900, repr. by photoreprint, Transaction books, 2002.
  • Wirls, Daniel and Wirls, Stephen. The Invention of the United States Senate Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2004. (Early history)
  • Zelizer, Julian E. On Capitol Hill : The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948–2000 (2006)
  • Zelizer, Julian E., ed. The American Congress: The Building of Democracy (2004) (overview)

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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Translations: Senate
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Home > Library > Literature & Language > Translations

Dansk (Danish)
n. - senat, konsistorium

Français (French)
n. - (Pol, Hist) sénat, (Univ) Conseil (d'université)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Senat

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γερουσία, σύγκλητος

Italiano (Italian)
Senato

Português (Portuguese)
n. - Senado (m)

Русский (Russian)
сенат, ученый совет

Español (Spanish)
n. - senado

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - senaten, konsistoriet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
参议院

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 參議院

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 상원, (고대 로마, 그리스의) 원로원, (국가의) 입법부

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 上院, 元老院, 評議会

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בית מחוקקים עליון, סנט (נ קמוצה)‬

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US Government Guide. The Oxford Guide to the United States Government. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2002 by John J. Patrick, Richard M. Pious, Donald M. Ritchie. All rights reserved.  Read more
US History Companion. The Reader's Companion to American History, Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Politics. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
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