Term 1 Lesson 5 - Review Questions Edhesive
While Congress is fabricated up of both the U.Due south. House of Representatives and the Senate, members of each of these two bodies are elected to serve for different amounts of time. We're taking a await at how term lengths differ for officials elected to each part of Congress and delve into why the founders set it up that way. And we'll delve into the issue of term limits, which are laws that would limit how many times each fellow member of Congress can run for reelection.
Term Lengths: Senate vs. House of Representatives
While we vote for who should hold the office of president every four years, congressional elections work a footling differently. Members of the Business firm of Representatives but serve two-year terms, unless they are reelected. These reelections happen every even-numbered year.
Senators, yet, get to serve for six years earlier they take to run for reelection once again. Their reelections are staggered so that you'll never run into every single senator upward for reelection at the same time. Instead, every even year, only about ane-third of the Senate comes up for reelection after they've served their full six-year term.
How many terms tin a member of Congress serve if they proceed getting reelected? Currently, as many as they want. Different presidents, members of Congress are under no obligation to retire after serving for a certain number of years.
House of Representatives: Term Lengths and Limits
So, why do members of the Firm and Senate have different term lengths? For answers, allow'south rewind. Back when the founders were figuring out how the regime of the U.S. should be structured, they divided Congress into two halves so that each could serve a specific ready of needs.
The House of Representatives is composed of elected officials from each state. The larger the population of the state, the more representatives they get to elect. This was supposed to ensure that the overall population of the U.S. was fairly represented, no thing where they lived. One of the reasons that a Business firm official'southward term is and then brusk is to keep them on their toes, so to speak. By more or less constantly being upwards for reelection, a House member'due south career depends on staying up-to-engagement with the preferences of their constituents.
Senate: Term Lengths and Limits
The Senate, on the other hand, is composed of two representatives from each state who each serve for a term of six years at a time. While the Business firm of Representatives was designed to stay on top of the "pulse of the people," the Senate was intended to be a little more than detached.
As James Madison put it, "If it not exist a firm torso, the other co-operative beingness more than numerous, and coming immediately from the people, will overwhelm it." In other words, the Senate is at that place to make certain that the government isn't entirely dependent on the ever-changing whims and passions of the people.
In society to keep the Senate from feeling completely free to do their own thing, however, the founders decided on the idea of having one/3 revolving elections every two years. That way, the Senate would always be stable, however somewhat upward for change.
What Are Term Limits?
If there is a 2-term limit on the office of president, why isn't there one for members of Congress? Well, keep in mind that the presidential term limit didn't e'er exist. In fact, in that location were no term limits for federal officials at all for over the offset 150 years of U.S. history.
While the ii-year term limit was sort of an unofficial presidential tradition, plenty of presidents ran for a third term, but just 1 managed to get reelected. In fact, FDR was elected president four times — in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. It wasn't until February of 1951 that the 22nd Amendment was formally ratified to plant the two-term presidential limit as U.S. police force.
Ironically, there actually were some Congressional term limits at one fourth dimension, but they were eventually thrown out. In 1995, 23 different states had passed laws that express how many terms their elected officials could serve in Congress. A pol from Arkansas, all the same, decided that he wanted the law thrown out in his state. Long story brusque, the issue went all the way to the U.Due south. Supreme Courtroom, where it was ultimately decided that states could not impose Congressional term limits on their representatives.
Should Congress Take Term Limits?
One of the main arguments fabricated by the Supreme Courtroom when they decided to toss state-imposed term limits was that that sort of thing should be done through a Constitutional amendment. As such, whether or not in that location should be such an subpoena has become a matter of heated fence.
Those who support congressional term limits contend that doing and so would keep anyone from becoming a "career politician." The idea here is that this would forcefulness members of Congress to concentrate more on their constituents' best interests rather than those of special interests groups or campaign donors. Term-limit supporters too argue that limiting the terms of those in Congress is more than in-line with the original intent of the founders and the majority will of the people.
Those who oppose term limits argue that since members of Congress tin only continue to serve if re-elected, information technology should exist upward to voters when to remove them. Some claim that term limits would work confronting voters, by preventing them from keeping a representative they loved around long-term. Additionally, some argue that being a member of Congress in and of itself is like whatever other career path and that representatives simply become better with experience.
There is currently a joint resolution nether consideration that would brand congressional term limits a reality. Cheque out U.South. Term Limits for more information and to learn how you tin contact your representatives to phonation your opinion.
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