October 22-23

Section 4: Elections and Meetings

-Congressional elections are held the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even numbered years. During congressional elections all 435 seats in the House are up for grabs, and one-third of all Senate seats are up for grabs.

-Section 4 of Article I also states that Congress must meet at least once every year. The 20th Amendment states that the date Congress is to meet will January 3rd.

Section 5: Organization and Rules of Congress

-Each house of Congress decides if its members are qualified to serve, and if the members were all properly elected. Both houses have the power to refuse to seat new members.

-In order to carry out congressional business, each house must have a majority present. Absent members can be forced to attend meetings of Congress.

-Each house sets its own rules. Can punish members for disorderly conduct, and can expel a member by a 2/3rds vote.

-Each house must keep an official record or journal of its meetings which must be published and made available to the public on a regular basis. The way that members of Congress vote on issues must be published and made public as well.

-Neither house of Congress may adjourn or relocate for more than 3 days without the approval of the other house.

Section 6: Privileges and Restrictions

-Members of Congress are to be paid for their duties by the federal government, not by the state they represent.

-No member of Congress can be sued or persecuted for anything they say on the floor of either house or in an official written publication.

-No member of Congress can be arrested while Congress is in session unless they are being charged with treason or other very serious crimes.

-Members of Congress can not hold any other government office while serving in Congress.

Section 7: Passing Laws

-Any bill that deals with money or taxes must originate in the House of Representatives.

-In order for a law to pass Congress, a simple majority in each House must vote for its approval.

-Once a bill passes Congress it is sent to the President. The President has a few options on what he can do with the bill:
1. The President can sign the bill into law.
2. The President can formally disapprove of the bill by vetoing it.
3. The President can do nothing. If the President does nothing the bill automatically becomes law after 10 days, excluding Sundays. If Congress adjourns before those 10 days are up the bill is automatically vetoed. This is called a pocket veto.

-If the President vetoes a bill it gets sent back to Congress. Congress then has the option to override the veto. In order to override a Presidential veto, both houses of Congress must approve the bill by a 2/3rds majority.

Section 8: Powers of Congress
*The US Constitution gives the Congress the following powers:

-Congress has the power to tax in order to raise funds for public purposes. Federal tax rates must be the same in every state.

-Congress has the power to borrow money by selling government bonds.

-Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce.

-Congress has the power to determine and define the process of naturalization that immigrants must go through in order to become US citizens.

-Congress has the power to regulate the procedures people must go through to declare bankruptcy.

-Congress has the power to coin and mint currency.

-Congress has the power to set the standards of weights and measures.

-Congress has the power to define the punishments for counterfeiting US currency, stamps, bonds, and federal documents.

-Congress has the power to create a postal system.

-Congress has the power to set copyright, and patent rules.

-Congress has the power to create federal courts lower than the US Supreme Court.

-Congress has the power to define punishments for pirates.

-Congress, only congress, not the President or any other branch or department of the US government, has the power to declare war.

-Congress has the power to raise, support, and regulate the armed forces.

-Congress has the power to give the states the authority to raise, support, and regulate a National Guard in order to suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.



-Congress has the power to set a location for the national capitol. The national capitol shall not be a state, or be a part of a state. The capitol shall be a district under complete federal control.

-Congress has the power to create laws that the constitution does not directly give it the power to create. The powers that are listed in the Constitution are called expressed powers because they are expressed directly in the constitution. In order to carry out the expressed powers, the congress has other, implied powers that will help it carry out the expressed powers. This is called the elastic clause.