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The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.. The structure of the United States Congress with a separate House and Senate (respectively the lower and upper houses of the bicameral legislature) is complex with numerous committees handling a disparate array of topics presided over by elected officers.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 28 January 2025. Bicameral legislature of the United States For the current Congress, see 119th United States Congress. For the building, see United States Capitol. This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being ...
As a practical matter, the limitation of Congress's ability to investigate only for a proper purpose ("in aid of" its legislative powers) functions as a limit on Congress's ability to investigate the private affairs of individual citizens; matters that simply demand action by another branch of government, without implicating an issue of public ...
Businesses and other special interest organizations often lobby the legislature to obtain beneficial legislation, defeat unfavorably perceived measures, or influence other legislative action. A legislature also approves the state's operating and capital budgets, which may begin as a legislative proposal or a submission by the governor.
The three distinct branches share powers: the U.S. Congress which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legislative body comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate; the executive branch, which is headed by the president of the United States, who serves as the country's head of state and government; and the judicial branch ...
Accordingly, by circumstances, the Constitution designates the vice president as routinely in the legislative branch, or succeeding to the executive branch as president, or possibly being in both as acting president pursuant to the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Because of circumstances, the overlapping nature of the duties and powers attributed to ...
The committee system is a way to provide for specialization, or a division of the legislative labor. Sometimes called "little legislatures," committees usually have the final say on pieces of legislation. Committees only very rarely are deprived control of a bill, although this kind of action is provided for in the rules of each chamber.
Congress has exclusive authority over financial and budgetary matters, through the enumerated power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. This power of the purse is one of Congress's primary checks on the executive branch. [6] In ...