What's The Difference Between The House & The Senate?

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The House and the Senate have mostly the same powers: they both propose and vote on bills that may become law. So why does the House have 435 members, and the Senate have 100? Why does legislation have to pass through both sides, and what kinds of power do each have individually? And finally: what role do you, as a voter, play in ensuring that Congress, and your Congressional delegation, is working in your best interests? This episode features the opinions of former staffers from both chambers, Andrew Wilson and Justin LeBlanc, former member of the CA assembly, Cheryl Cook-Kallio, CNN political analyst, Bakari Sellers, and the inimitable political science professor from Farleigh Dickinson, Dan Cassino. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	President, without objection.
0:04.6	President, I call my amendment per the order.
0:07.6	The clerk will report the amendment.
0:09.8	The senator may come for a moment.
0:11.0	What is going on?
0:11.8	Why are you making me listen to this?
0:13.6	OK, this is from a YouTube video from 2009,
0:17.0	and it's called Senate chaos.
0:19.6	Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont,
0:21.4	he's just proposed an amendment to a health care bill.
0:24.3	And as usually happens, he asks the amendment be considered
0:27.2	as red.
0:28.5	Since senators usually get these bills and amendments
0:30.8	in advance, there's no need to read them aloud.
0:33.3	The adaptation.
0:33.9	Object.
0:34.6	All right, right there.
0:35.6	Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma, a table of context.
0:40.0	The table of context, this act, is as follows.
0:43.4	The clerk has to read the whole thing.
0:46.6	And it's 767 pages.
0:51.1	All right, listen to this.
	...

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