In addition to its lawmaking powers, the Senate was intended to be an advisory council to the President.  Only with its “advice and consent” may the President make appointments and treaties.

Investigate and report on the following: 

The compromises of the Constitution.

The census of 1920.

The number of congressional districts in your state, and the number of the one you live in.

The names of your representative and senators.

The qualifications for election to the House of Representatives and to the Senate (Art.  I, secs. 2 and 3).  Compare with the qualifications for election to the two houses of your legislature.

The characteristics of the Senate that make it more conservative than the House of Representatives.  The meaning of “conservatism.”

Why the Senate should be more conservative than the House.

The “long” and “short” sessions of Congress.

How vacancies in Congress are filled between elections.

Legislation in which the representative from your district has been especially interested during the last session of Congress.

In England a member of the House of Commons is not required to be a resident of the district which he represents.  Arguments for and against this plan.

Debate the question:  Resolved, that our Constitution should be amended to provide for a “responsible cabinet government” as in England.

ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESS

The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the United States, while that of the House of Representatives is a speaker elected by the House.  The Vice-President has no vote in the Senate except in case of a tie, when he may cast the deciding vote.  The Speaker, on the other hand, has all the rights of any other member and has large powers by virtue of his position.  He is always elected by a strictly party vote, and therefore represents the majority party in the House.

THE COMMITTEE SYSTEM

As in the state legislatures, and for the same reason, most of the work of legislation in Congress is done by standing committees, of which there are about sixty in the House and about seventy-five in the Senate.  As in the state legislatures, these committees are chosen on party lines, the chairmen and the majority of the members always being of the majority party.  The procedure by which legislation is carried on in Congress is very much the same as that in the state legislatures, and has the same advantages and disadvantages.  There is even greater necessity for the committee organization and for rules because of the vastly greater number of bills introduced.  In a recent Congress more than 33,000 bills were introduced in the House of Representatives alone.  Whereas in the state legislatures some of the rules of procedure are fixed by the state constitutions, the rules of Congress are determined entirely by each house for itself.  The committee on rules in each house, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chairmen of the committees in both houses, may run things as they see fit.  That this is done there is plenty of evidence, such as the following words of a member of Congress: