Structure and Organization of Congress

*A term is the meeting period of Congress. *Each term has two sessions. Sessions always begin on January 3rd. *The terms of Congress are numbered. *We are currently in the 113th term of Congress.

» 1. Committees » 2. Leadership » 3. Party

*Majority party – the political party with more members in either house of Congress *Minority party – the political party with fewer members in either house of Congress *The Majority Party gets to pick the leaders

231 Republicans

204 Democrats

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-OH

Majority Party Leader

Minority Party Leader

Majority Whip

Minority Whip

President of the Senate (Always U.S. V.P.)

Pat Leahy – D, VT

President Pro Tempore

Majority Party Leader

Minority Party Leader

Majority Whip

Minority Whip

Breaking into committees allows members of Congress to handle the workload of having to consider thousands of bills that are introduced each term. There are four major types of committees: Standing, Select, Joint, and Conference

You will read about each of these for homework on pages 225-226. After your reading, you will choose two out of the four to compare and contrast with a Venn diagram.