Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 3
Committees and subcommittees of both the House and the Senate play a significant role in the legislative process, and hold public hearings and oversight hearings on important issues.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 27: Lobbying
Explains what lobbying is, what types of groups participate in it, and some of the rules that lobbyists must follow.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 28: Effective Lobbying
Explains what lobbyists need to do in order to be effective and to influence politicians.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 1
Some of the important powers and responsibilities of Congress are explained.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 2
How Congress is organized into houses and committees is outlined in this podcast.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 4: Select Committees
Select committees and task forces are used by both the House and the Senate for specific purposes and a limited time.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 5
The House of Representatives has a set of rules governing how committees function. They establish things such as the kinds of issues committees can address, how long they can last, how many members a committee can have, and how many...
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 6
The House of Representatives has rules that guide debates, as well as a rules committee that deals with rules for special debates. Other rules for hearings, the presentation of bills, etc. are set by various committees.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 8: The Speaker of the House
The Speaker of the House of Representatives wields a good deal of power. For example, the Speaker controls committee appointments and sits on the Rules Committee.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 9: Powerful House Committee Chairs
A discussion of the forms leadership takes in the House of Representatives and how it has changed at various times in American history. Committee chairs have sometimes held a lot of power and competed to control the legislative agenda.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 10: Political Party Control
The Speaker in the House of Representatives can exert strong control that emphasizes his or her party's agenda. For example, by appointing party members to chair committees, rather than members with seniority.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 11: House Speaker Partisanship
The Speaker of the House of Representatives has not always pushed a political party agenda. This began when Henry Clay became Speaker in 1812.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 12: Senate Leadership
Explains the role of the Vice-President of the United States as leader and President of the Senate, and how leadership in the Senate differs from that in the House of Representatives.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 13: Tie Breaking Vice Presidents
Prior to the 17th Amendment, which passed in 1917, Senators were appointed by state legislatures. After the 12th Amendment in 1804, the Vice-Presidents were detached from the Senate and only served to break a tie vote.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 14: House Whips
Explains the role a whip plays in the House of Representatives, which is to monitor members for their adherence to the party agenda.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 15: Resolutions
Resolutions in Congress can be simple or joint. They can be proposals for laws, for constitutional amendments, or for other matters.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 16: How a Bill Becomes a Law
The lengthy process a bill must go through before it becomes a law is explained.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 17: Bills in Committee
Bills are assigned to one or more committees when they first enter the House of Representatives or the Senate. They are examined, amended, then go to a hearing, which is often public, for further scrutiny.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 18: Mark Up Sessions
Mark-up sessions are committee meetings that happen at a later stage in the process a bill goes through before a final vote in the Senate or the House.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 19: Conference Committees
A conference committee is comprised of members from both chambers of Congress. It tries to resolve differences between the House and the Senate over the content of a bill. It issues a conference report to both chambers for a vote.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 20: Vetoes and Overrides
Even when a bill is passed by Congress, it still must be signed by the President, who may decide to veto it. If this happens, Congress can also override that veto through a new vote in both chambers.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 21: Majority Support
At every stage in the process of becoming a law, a bill is scrutinized and must have majority support for it in order to be moved along.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 22: The Protection of Rights
Congress has played a major role in the protection of Americans' rights that includes writing the Bill of Rights, amendments to it, and landmark legislation.
Center For Civic Education
60 Second Civics: How Congress Functions: Pt. 23: Landmark Legislation
Landmark legislation is created by Congress when there is a need for it, such as to address inequality or to protect workers' rights.