The United States Congress

Before we get to issues that we want or need our Congress to address, it is important that we understand the basics of Congress. The Congress of the United States, the Legislative Branch of our government, makes our laws and is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are a total of one hundred Senators or two for each state and four hundred and thirty five Congressmen (this includes both Congressmen and Congresswomen) in the House of Representatives. Most Americans are represented in Congress by one Congressman and two Senators (the District of Columbia does not have Congressmen or Senators). A Congressman's term of office is two years and Congressmen can serve an unlimited number of consecutive terms as long as they can win an election every two years. A Senator's term of office is six years and Senators can serve an unlimited number of consecutive terms also as long as they can win an election every six years.

The Constitution of the United States defines the powers of Congress and specific actions that can be performed or initiated by only the Senate or the House of Representatives. If you are interested, you can purchase a copy of the Constitution in a bookstore or you can find the Constitution on the internet by searching for "Constitution of the United States".

In the next posting, we will discuss reasons why Congress does not act and following that, in future postings, we will discuss possible solutions. Many of these possible solutions will become issues which we, individually, will want to discuss with our representatives.