The terms of Senators are staggered so that the terms of approximately one-third of Senators expire every two years. Elections to fill those Senate seats coincide every two years with elections for all members of the House of Representatives and, every four years, with the election of the President.
The terms of office for Senators are fixed. Neither house can be dissolved, and the dates for congressional elections are established by law. The Senate, like the House of Representatives, is the sole judge of the election and qualification of its members. At least one session a year beginning at midday on 3 January of each year, unless Congress enacts a law that sets a later date. During , the Senate met for 1, hours on days. Neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives may adjourn for more than three days without the prior consent of the other chamber.
On some days the Senate meets very briefly in pro forma sessions at which no business is conducted. The President has the constitutional authority to convene the Senate or both houses of Congress in exceptional circumstances. This power rarely is exercised. Senators have the same authority as Representatives to propose legislation, with two exceptions. The Constitution states that all revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives traditionally has insisted thar this constitutional provision also requires that appropriation bills originate in the House. Senators may amend all bills, including revenue and appropriation bills. Furthermore, Senators usually may propose amendments in plenary sessions that are unrelated to the subject of the bill that the Senate is considering. This right enables Senators to initiate revenue and appropriation proposals, even though these proposals are presented as amendments to bills that the House ef Representatives already has passed.
There are only a few constitutional requirements that govern how the Senate conducts its business. The legislative procedures of the Senate are distinctive in two respects. First, as noted immediately above, Senators usually may offer amendments on any subject in plenary sessions, without regard to the subject of the bill that the Senate is debating.
Second, there usually is no time limit on the length of Senators'speeches. Section 6. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place. No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.
Section 7. Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it.
If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law.
But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days Sundays excepted after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary except on a question of Adjournment shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.
Section 8. To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;. To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;. To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;.
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;. To establish Post Offices and post Roads;. To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;. To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;.
To provide and maintain a Navy;. Start with the total U. Update the apportionment every decade according to the official census. This apportionment shows how out of whack the current Senate has become. Read: The people v. In the new allocation, the total number of senators would be The total is more than because 10 of the smallest states have much less than 0. The Constitution plainly says that each state gets two senators.
But, look, when conservative lawyers first argued that the Affordable Care Act violated the Commerce Clause, that seemed unthinkable, too. Our Constitution is more malleable than many imagine. First, consider that Article V applies only to amendments. The Senate Reform Act would simply shift seats according to population. No state or its citizens would lose the franchise. Note that even states that did not ratify the voting-rights amendments have, functionally, consented to them, and thus also to the constitutional logic supporting a Senate Reform Act.
Remember, too, that the Constitution is a complex framework document that has evolved over the course of more than two centuries. Congress has exercised its power under these amendments in legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of The Supreme Court applied the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to declare Senate-like malapportioned state legislatures unconstitutional in a number of cases, such as Reynolds v.
As recently as Bush v.
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