US Government Congress Lesson: 1. Structure and Role

• Sets up a bicameral legislature• President mentioned as a check on Congress• Details how House and Senate to be set up• Article 1 Section 8 – Interstate Commerce Clause (excuse to

interfere?) and ‘elastic clause’ (left open possibility to legislate on important issues)

What is Congress and why is it there?

Read Article 1 of the US Constitution.

Summarise the role and purpose of Congress in 4 bullet points.

*not a list of powers!

Constitutional Analysis

Enquiry Question: What is the structure and role of Congress?

Learning Outcomes

• To explain the bicameral structure of Congress

• To analyse the roles of Congress

The Importance of Congress• When the USA broke away from the UK in 1776, the first system of

government consisted only of a legislature.

• The Articles of Confederation provided America with no executive or judiciary because it was through that policies should be decided collectively and then implemented by the 13 individual states.

• This was intended to ensure that no monarch-like figure could emerge.

• This system of government proved inadequate to meet the challenges facing the young country and was replaced by the current system devised at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787.

• However, even in the revised system, there was an intention that policy would be made collectively to avoid the emergence of a monarch-like figure.

• Congress was therefore expected to be the most important and most powerful branch of government.

The Legislative Branch

• General legislation was the responsibility of both houses, with each having the ability to put forward legislative proposals and with each separately examining those proposals.

• The executive branch, not the legislative branch, was expected to take the lead in foreign affairs.

• Apart from that, its only role was to implement the decisions of Congress.

The Importance of Congress

The US Congress is a bicameral legislature which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Questions• Why is Congress bicameral?• What does bicameral mean?• What are the Senate and House of Representatives are for?• Outline a brief history of the institutions.

Watch the video clip!

Constitutional Requirements for Membership of Congress

READ ARTICLE 1

• What constitutional requirements are there for a Senator?

• What constitutional requirements are there for a member of the House of Representatives?

• Why are these in place?

• Is there any reason (you can think of) why the requirements may be different?

Constitutional Analysis

House of Representatives

Senate

435 members 100 members

Elected for 2 year terms Elected for 6 year term

Elections of whole House every 2 years

Elections of 1/3 of Senate every 2 years

Need to be 25 years old + Need to be 30 years old +

Need to be a citizen of the US for 7 years +

Need to be a citizen of the US for 9 years +

Need to be a resident in the state for which they are standing

Need to be a resident in the state for which they are standing

Learning Outcomes

• To explain the bicameral structure of Congress

• To analyse the roles of Congress

YOUR TASK:• Look at the diagram.• You will be split into four groups.• One person in each group will be

the reporter, a second will take notes, and a third will write your group's responses on each worksheet.

• Work collaboratively to fill out“Studying the Diagram (Worksheet)” and prepare to report their responses to the rest of the class.

• Each group will then share their responses.

What does Congress do?Studying a diagram

YOUR TASK:• There will now be 20 game

pieces distributed to randomly selected students.

• Work collaboratively as a whole class to identify the best match of each game piece to a location on the perimeter of the diagram.

Hint: The single letters printed on each game piece will spell out a three word phrase when all the

game pieces have been correctly placed.

What does Congress do?How does Congress fulfil its roles?

YOUR TASK:• Return to your original four

groups.• You will be assigned one

quadrant of the filled-in diagram your group.

• Use “Analysing the Diagram (Worksheet)” to analyse your assigned quadrant of the board, and prepare to report back your responses to the class.

• Each reporter will share their group's results.

What does Congress do?Analysing Functions of Congress

What does Congress do?

YOUR TASK:• Working in pairs, you will be given

one of 20 documents and the corresponding miniature

• Complete “Analysing Primary Source Documents (Worksheet)” to analyse your document.

• Place the miniature version of the document on the game piece containing the action of Congress that it most closely matches.

• You will then explain to the class the placement of it on the diagram.

Analysing Primary Source Documents

What does Congress do?

YOUR TASK:

• Return to your original four groups.

• Work collaboratively to answer the questions on “Reflection Questions (Worksheet)”

• Each group's reporter will share their results with the class.

Analysing Primary Source Documents

Learning Outcomes

• To explain the bicameral structure of Congress

• To analyse the roles of Congress

There are 100 senators, 2 from each of the 50 states.

Use the post-its to work together as a class to identify all 50.

Homework

Application Task:

N/A

Flipped Learning Preparation Task:

Functions and Structure of Power in Congress (McKay p183-193)

Stretch & Challenge Task

The Role of Congress in American Society