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The Congress of the United States is composed of two
houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The
Senate represents the states. Each state is guaranted at least
one representative in the House. The remainder are apportioned
among the states according to their population. The Senate
of US is composed of one hundred members — two being
elected from each state. Senators are chosen for six years,
one-third retiring or seeking is re-elected every two years.
Two senators from the same state never finish their terms at
the same time, one of them is called "Senior Senator" and the
other — "Junior Senator".
The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of
the United States. The Vice-President is not a member of the
chamber over which he presides and he sometimes is not a
member of the party in power.
The work of the US Congress is done mostly in different
committees. The most important of the Senate committees are
Appropriations Foreign Relations, Finance, Armed Services.
In the House of Representatives the most important
are Rules, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Judiciary,
Agriculture.
The chairmen of the standing committees are considered
the real rulers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Questions:
1. How many houses are there in the US Congress?
2. What represents the Senate?
3. How many members of Senate are there?
4. Who is the Vice-President?
5. How is the work of the US Congress done?
6. Name the important committees of the Congress.
Vocabulary:
to compose — составлять
according — соответственно
to retire — уходить в отставку
senior — старший
junior — младший
chamber — палата
chairman — председатель
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