Preview

Bicameral Structure

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
459 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Bicameral Structure
Bicameral structure is divided into two chambers the house and senate and we have this because of The Great Compromise. The founding fathers needed a system of government that has large states with a big population and small states with small populations. It was created for the big states for the House power and small states for the Senate power. An example is Wyoming with 1 and California with 53 representatives (largest one) and there are two senators for each Wyoming and California. There are requirements to be either in the House or the Senate and the requirements for the House is to be at least 25 years old, citizen of the United States at least 7 years and live in the state you represent. The House representatives are elected every 2 …show more content…
The first census was in 1970, at first it was one house seat but as the population grew, they wanted more house seats. In 1911, the house seats were capped because it went up to 500 House seats. Since it wasn’t sustainable, it was then created the 17th amendment in 1913. The 17th amendment was ratified to keep 435 House seats. An example of increased House seats would be in Texas the in 1950 there were 22 H.S, 2000 there were 32 H.S and now 2016 there are 36 H.S. The one that hasn’t change is Wyoming it was stayed at 1 house seat since 1950 and the 2000. In addition, the Congress has the bicameral congress divided into two the House, which declares war and raises taxes and the Senate who ratifies treaties and confirm the president appointments. The House Representatives are not average, the House has an estimate of 2-6 million and Senate estimate of 14 million dollars. Some will say this a problem and other do not think it is. As stated before, the bicameral was created because of the Great Compromise that was an agreement to have small states as Senate and large states as the House of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “Great Compromise”: provided a dual system of congressional representation. In the House of Representatives each state would be assigned a number of seats in proportion to its population. In the Senate, all states would have the same number of seats.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Framers established a bicameral legislature for three reasons. First, they were familiar with the bicameral British Parliament. Second, a bicameral structure resolved conflicts between the Virginia and New Jersey plans. Third, the bicameral structure was meant to provide a system of checks and balances within the legislative branch itself.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Eco Bottle Lab Report

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. The framers created a bicameral legislature because of the Great Compromise at the Constitutional Convention which stated that one house’s representation will be based on a state’s population and the other would have equal representation. Another reason is that it would help prevent tyranny because both houses can “check” each other to make sure one does not get to powerful. One power unique to the House of Representatives is that revenue bills must originate from the House; the framers gave this power to the House because the House of Representatives is more representative of the entire population than the Senate is. One power unique to the Senate is that they are the ones that try the President for impeachment; the framers gave this power to the Senate because they reflect the state’s interests and also because they are more “mature” than the House of Representatives since the required age is higher.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    14th Amendment Structure

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Article 1 of the constitution covers the purpose and the organization of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Though there are ten sections in the Article and numerous subparagraphs, this paper will focus on the structure, and a few of the subparagraphs concerning its function. We will begin with the organization since this should be covered before the responsibilities are addressed; this starts in the second section, with how the house will be selected, the requirements to be selected, and how the proportions should be arranged. This was an extremely sensitive subject for many of the delegates at the time of the framing of the constitution due to representation.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Each state according to population got a number of representatives (each state had at least one representative), and two senators. This is what caused the big states v. small states issue. Why was this an issue? Well the large states obviously would have been happier with their representation in the House like, Virginia. “Representatives…shall be appointed…according to……

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Areas with more people have smaller districts. Each senator represents about 162,536 people and each representative represents about 54,179 people. In November, the voters elect (or re-elect) all of the assembly members and ½ of the senators. The next session of the legislature begins the following January.…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Senators represent an entire state, as members of the House of Representatives only represent districts, highlighting from the outset their different abilities to reach a broader spectrum of people, along with Senates being 1 of 100, and House members being 1 of 435. Therefore Senators have an easier avenue to implement their work, as a House representative has far less status, due to them being far denser in numbers a clear example of this is that of Bill Frist who in January 2003 became majority leader after only eight years in the Senate. While at the same time Representative Nancy Pelosi became House minority leader, but she had been a member in the house since 1987. This further highlights the ability of those with the senate to gain more status. Power within Congress is very much concentrated within committees, rather than that of the Chamber floor in question, which further highlights the Senates greater status, as Senators are far more likely to chair committees, which further heightens their status on Capitol Hill.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The senate and congress each gained power. The “upper house” is the senate, and it is made up of two senators from each individual state. There are obligated to be at least thirty years old, a citizen of the United States for nine years, and usually serve up to six years. The way the house is conducted is that there are representatives based on how big the state is and its population. Representatives must be at least twenty five years of age and had to be a citizen for at least seven years. The United States constitution is enforced in a sense, because this system implements checks and…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Seventeenth Amendment was added to the United States Constitution yesterday and it established the popular election of United States Senators by the people of the states. Since state legislatures were notoriously corrupt at the time, the path to the Senate quickly became who could buy their way in. The 17th Amendment of the Constitution tried to solve this problem. Prior to the 17th Amendment, the Constitution specified that senators were elected by state legislatures. The reason why the Framers of the Constitution originally did this was because they wanted state governments to have some kind of role in the national government. But widespread corruption made people lose faith in the system. Furthermore, sometimes state legislatures just…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today the United States uses a process called single member representation. This has been the process the United States has been using since the United States was first established. This had been very effective until now. The reality is that this is greatly underrepresentation of the smaller parties. Proportional Representation is a better system in a number of ways; there would be less issues with gerrymandering, there would be a rise in the number of voters, there would be much better representation, and there would be more sexual equality in Congress.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A second structure of Congress is committees. There are twenty-one standing committees in the House and seventeen in the Senate; each committee serves an important function. Ultimately, the committee system helps the members of Congress by allowing for a division of labor. Congress at large simply does not have the time or expertise needed for every piece of legislation, which is why committees are so important. The small groups can make things happen more effectively than if Congress as a whole had to work on the legislation. A congressional seniority system exists in the committees where over time congressmen can rise to more powerful positions but with increased incumbency and members of Congress staying on longer there is less room for…

    • 2492 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another difference is that the Senate is composed of 100 senators, two from each state. The House of Representatives, however, is made up of 435 representatives. The number of representatives each state receives is determined by that state’s population. A third difference would be the fact that each serves different term lengths. A member from the Senate serves a six year term, while a member from the House of Representatives serves a two year term.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 535 total members in congress. The framers viewed the legislative branch as the most powerful branch. When congress meets its called a session and this happens once a year. We got the bicameral legislature from the great compromise.…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Because of the huge population change, we need to compensate for that by letting the bigger states, such as California, have more Representatives in the House of Senates. Along with that, states such as Wyoming, would not need more Representatives.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Great Compromise

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Great Compromise was the solution to struggle of representation in the Legislative Branch during the U.S Constitutional Convention in 1787. The states with bigger populations like Virginia favored the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan called for representation based on the amount of people living in each state. Larger states favored this plan because they would have more power in making laws. On the other hand, smaller states like Delaware favored the New Jersey Plan, under which each state would send the same amount of representatives to Congress. Smaller states favored this because it meant equal power for everyone. This problem was solved by Roger Sherman. He proposed a bicameral legislature. Each state, as suggested by Sherman, would send an equal amount of Representatives to the House of Senate, and one representative for every 30,000 citizens to the House of Representatives. Today, the variable number of members of the House of Representatives is based on the State’s population as reported in the most recent decennial census. The process of determining the number of members of the House from each state is known as apportionment. Apportionment is the process of allocating the 435 House seats among the states according to each state’s population.…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays