CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 1537 



CONGRESSIONAL RECORD 



vised by the participants before being pub- 

 lished. Each member of Congress finds on his 

 desk in the morning a copy of the Record 

 containing the full account of proceedings 

 in the Senate and House for the preceding 

 day. Copies of the Record are sent without 



cost to public libraries, and any individual may 

 subscribe for it. The cost is $1.50 for one 

 month, $4 for the short session and $8 for 

 long sessions. Subscriptions should be ad- 

 dressed to the Superintendent of Documents, 

 Government Printing Office, Washington. 



THE STORY OF THE 



'ONGRESS OF THE UNITED 

 STATES, the legislative department of the 

 Federal government, composed of members 

 chosen by the forty-eight states, the number 

 determined by the body itself. The territories 

 of Alaska and Hawaii are each represented by 

 a Delegate. The Philippines and Porto Rico 

 send resident commissioners to Congress. The 

 legal term is The Congress, although custom 

 has shortened it to Congress; the name is a 

 natural development from that applied to 

 meetings of European sovereigns or their en- 

 voys to arrange international affairs. 



Organization of Congress. The Constitution 

 prescribed that there should be two houses of 

 Congress, a Senate and a House of Represen- 

 tatives. The former is composed of two mem- 

 bers from each state, chosen at large for six 

 years, and representing, in a broad way, the 

 sovereignty of the state and all the people of 

 the state; the latter is composed of members 

 whose election is by Congressional districts, 

 each member responsible to the people of his 

 district. . Both Senators and Representatives 

 are elected by direct vote of the people. The 

 House of Representatives is called the "pop- 

 ular" branch (derived from populus, meaning 

 people), because it has from the first been 

 chosen directly from the citizenship every two 

 years, while the election of Senators until 1912 

 was entrusted to the various state legislatures. 



Each House may choose its own officers, 

 except that the Vice-President of the United 

 States, by Constitutional provision, must be 

 President of the Senate. The presiding officer 

 of the House of Representatives is called the 

 Speaker, a name borrowed from the House of 

 97 



Commons of the English Parliament; he is 

 always chosen from the membership of the 

 House, although any private citizen may be 

 selected for the position. The committee 

 memberships in each house are assigned by a 

 special committee appointed for the purpose; 

 with respect to the House of Representatives 

 this is a change from custom dating from the 

 foundation of the government, for until the 

 Sixty-Second Congress (1911) the Speaker arbi- 

 trarily appointed all House committees. 



Powers of Congress. Unlike the English Par- 

 liament, Congress is restricted in its powers 

 of legislation; the former is the only law- 

 making body of the British Isles, while in the 

 United States each state is supreme in local 

 affairs, and "the powers not delegated to the 

 United States by the Constitution, neither pro- 

 hibited by it to the states, are reserved to the 

 States respectively, or to the people." 



The Constitution specifically defines the 

 legislative power that shall be reserved to 

 Congress; from the following lists of powers 

 thus delegated, it will be clear that those broad 

 measures whose effect is more far-reaching than 

 the boundaries of any single state are subject 

 exclusively to national control. Congress shall 



1. Lay and collect all taxes and duties for the 

 support of the Federal Government. 



2. Borrow money on the credit of the United 

 States, and pay all national debts. 



3. Regulate commerce with foreign nations and 

 among the States. 



4. Pass laws regarding naturalization and 

 bankruptcy, all of which shall be uniform in their 

 operation throughout the Union. 



5. C<5in money, regulate the value of it, and de- 

 clare what shall be the standards of weights and 

 measures. 



