This is the 99% Invisible Breakdown of the Constitution.

I'm Roman Mars.

And I'm Elizabeth Chap.

Today we're covering Article 1 of the Constitution, which established the legislative branch of the federal government.

And our guest for our discussion is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Cherise Davids.

Representative Davids has served Kansas' third congressional district since 2019.

She is one of the first two Native American women elected to the United States Congress,

along with Deb Holland from New Mexico, who was elected in the same year.

She was raised by a single mother.

She is a first-generation college student.

She put herself through school.

She eventually graduated from Cornell Law School. When people learn about her, they can't help but mention that she was a professional, promising MMA fighter for a short period of time. I can't seem to resist it either. It's awesome. If I was invited to a party with everyone in the House of Representatives, I would make a beeline to Representative David's and talk about

infrastructure with her all night long. She's very into infrastructure. And it turns out she's

extremely into the processes and procedures of getting things done in Congress, the hidden

aspects of Article 1. That's right. And that's one of the reasons why we invited her as our

book club guest.

Representative Sharis Davids, thank you so much for being on the 99% Invisible Breakdown of the Constitution.

Thank you for having me.

So we're covering Article 1 of the Constitution, and we're kind of dividing our discussion roughly into two parts with today's discussion centering on the first half of Article 1. So Elizabeth Cho, do you want to give us a summary of Article 1? What is it all about?

Sure. Here goes. Article 1 is all about Congress. The most important part is right at the beginning.

And Section 1 says, all legislative powers here and granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,

which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

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