3. Ratification of treaties.
All treaties between the United States and other countries must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the Senate before they can go into effect. This gives the Senate an important influence in the control and direction of foreign affairs because the relations between the United States and other countries are fixed, to a considerable extent, by treaties. The whole subject of treaties and foreign relations is so complicated, however, that it may best be reserved for study in a later chapter.
Powers which are jointly exercised with the House.
The Senate: Its Concurrent Powers.—In all other matters, apart from impeachments, appointments, and treaties, the Senate has concurrent power with the House of Representatives. There is a provision in the constitution to the effect that all bills for raising revenue must “originate” in the House of Representatives, but that the Senate may amend such bills as it pleases. This is a partial reproduction of an ancient rule in the unwritten constitution of Great Britain which gives the House of Commons the initiative in all financial matters. By usage, also, all bills for spending money originate in the lower house. But the Senate, as a practical matter, uses its amending power so freely that it can virtually originate measures of either sort whenever it desires to do so. When a bill comes up from the lower chamber it can strike out virtually the whole measure, put a new bill in its place, and send this back to the House of Representatives. In matters which do not relate to revenue or expenditure the powers of the two chambers are precisely the same both in theory and in practice.
How the size of the House is determined.
The House of Representatives: Its Organization.—The House of Representatives is nearly five times as large as the Senate, having 435 members at the present time. It is much too large for the effective debating of measures.[[113]] Every ten years, after the population of each state has been determined by the census bureau, Congress by law fixes the total membership of the House for the ensuing decade. Dividing this figure into the total population of the country gives a “ratio of representation”, that is the uniform quota of population which is entitled to one representative. For example, if the population of the country is one hundred millions and the membership of the House is fixed at 400, the ratio would be one representative for every 250,000 people. Having found this ratio, it is a simple matter to determine how many representatives each state shall have. New York, with ten million people, would be allotted forty congressmen; Maine, with seven hundred and fifty thousand people, would get only three. Nevada, Wyoming and Delaware would not get any, if the ratio were strictly applied, but the constitution requires that every state, no matter what its population, shall be given at least one representative in the House. When the quota to which each state is entitled has been figured the several states proceed, through their legislatures, to lay out congressional districts and from each such district one congressman is chosen at the next election.
Congressional districts.
This work of “redistricting” the state gave rise at an early date to a practice commonly known as “gerrymandering”.[[114]] The national laws require that all congressional districts within a state shall be approximately equal in population and that they shall be composed of contiguous territory. Apart from these restrictions, the state legislatures are free to map out the districts as they see fit and they do this, very frequently, with an eye to gaining advantage for the political party which happens to control the legislature. By adding one county or town and taking off another, always with party motives in mind, it is possible to “gerrymander” a district into such form that the candidate of the favored party will have an advantage over his opponent. True enough, these gerrymandered congressional districts, when drawn on the map, often look like a lizard or a starfish, but there is nothing in the constitution or the laws of the United States which requires congressional districts to be uniform in shape.
The method of choosing congressmen.
How Representatives are Chosen.—Every second year elections are held in all the congressional districts of the country and one congressman is chosen from each. Each state determines how the nominations are made and is responsible for conducting the election. The qualifications for voting are the same as those established at state elections. There is no legal requirement that a representative must be a resident of the district which elects him; it is enough that he be a resident of the state in which the district is located. But as a matter of practice congressmen are nearly always residents of their districts. American usage in this respect differs from that of some other countries, particularly Great Britain, where members of the House of Commons are frequently chosen from districts in which they do not reside. |The residence requirement.| The advantage of this plan is that a capable statesman can secure a seat in the lawmaking body even though his own home district may be one which the opposite party controls. In the United States, on the other hand, if a capable man belonging to the Democratic party happens to live in a strongly Republican district, there is practically no chance of his ever being a member of the national House of Representatives no matter how strong his personal qualifications may be. One congressional district, moreover, especially in the residential portion of a large city, may have many capable men living in it. But only one of them, under American usage, can sit in the House. The argument that, in order to know the needs of his district, a congressman must actually live in it, is on everyone’s tongue, but it deserves no considerable weight. The first duty of a congressman is to promote the interests of the whole people and not merely those of his own district.