CHAPTER NiNE • THE CoNgREss 209
HoW CoNgREss is oRgANizEd
The limited amount of centralized power that exists in Congress is exercised through
party-based mechanisms. Congress is organized by party. When the Democratic Party, for
example, wins a majority of seats in either the House or the Senate, Democrats control
the official positions of power in that chamber, and every important committee has a
Democratic chairperson and a majority of Democratic members. The same process holds
when Republicans are in the majority.
In each chamber of Congress, members of the two major political parties elect lead-
ers to coordinate party action and to negotiate with the other chamber and with the
president. Still, much of the actual work of legislating is performed by the committees
and subcommittees within Congress. Thousands of bills are introduced in every session
of Congress, and no single member can possibly be adequately informed on all the issues
that arise. The committee system is a way to provide for specialization, or a division of the
legislative labor. Members of a committee can concentrate on just one area or topic—such
as taxation or energy—and develop sufficient expertise to draft appropriate legislation
when needed. The flow of legislation through both the House and the Senate is deter-
mined largely by the speed with which the members of these committees act on bills and
resolutions.FiguRE 9–3: The Fourth Congressional district of illinois
This district, which is mostly within Chicago’s city limits, was drawn to connect two Hispanic neighborhoods separated by an
African American majority district.Source: National Atlas of the United States, U.S. Department of the Interior.LO4: Describe the committee
structure of the House and the
Senate, and specify the key
leadership positions in each
chamber.Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.