Political Science

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Political Science

The Structure of Congress

Congress is the most important part of the legislative branch of the American government . It includes the General Accounting Office , the Congressional Budget Office and other agencies (see Annexure One (Encarta , 2005 . It 's made up of two houses - the Senate and the House of Representatives

Important functions of Congress

The most important function of Congress is the making of laws . Both houses have an equal voice in legislation , but bills should originate

with the House of Representatives . After being passed by each house separately bills are signed by the President within ten days . If not signed within ten days they become law automatically . Should the President veto the bill , in for it to become law it will have to go through the Houses again and get a two thirds majority vote again (Answers .com , 2005

One of the most important nonlegislative functions of the Congress is investigation . This task is usually delegated to committees - either standing committees , special committees set up for a specific purpose or HYPERLINK "http /www .answers .com /main /ntquery jsessionid 162i5l1gn2agn ?method 4 d sid 2222 dekey Joint committee gwp 8 curtab 2222_1 sbid lc03a " \t "_top joint committees which are made up of members of both houses Investigations can be done for a variety of reasons , including to obtain information on what future laws are required , to check how effective laws already passed are , to inquire into the qualifications and performance of members and officials of the other branches , and to lay the groundwork for impeachment proceedings (Answers .com , 2005

Value to the Democratic System

Adherance to these abovementioned important functions helps Congress to ensure that the country is run in a democratic manner . Doing this background investigation allows future democratic laws to be made with a good measure of deliberation and will have a direct impact on the formulation and passing of the laws when they come to being prepared So we can see that the investigation impacts upon the making of the laws , which in turn impacts upon the way that the democracy is run Annexures

Annexure 1

The Structure of Congress (Encarta , 2005

Works Cited

Answers .com , 2005 , Congress of the United States , retrieved 7 December 2005 from the website http /www .answers .com /congress-of-the-united-states

MSN Encarta , 2005 , Structure of Congress , retrieved 7 December 2005 from the website http /uk .encarta .msn .com /media_7_8_-1_1 /Structure_of_Co ngress .html...