Congress

• Confirm presidential appointments
• Ratify treaties
• Try cases of impeachment
• Elect vice-president if Electoral College is deadlocked

• Initiate money bills
• Impeachment
• Elect president if Electoral College is deadlocked

• Pass legislation
• Override the presidential veto
• Initiate constitutional amendments
• Declare war
• Confirm a newly appointed vice-president

States are represented proportionally with 435 members

• States are represented equally (2 per state) so 100 members
• In 2013 there were 52 ex-house members in the senate
• In 2012, 12 House members ran for the Senate, 6 Reps. and 6 Dems. 1 Rep. and 5 Dems. won.

Yes

• Senators represent the entire state whilst House members only represent a Congressional district e.g. Schiff 28th Congress of California is 1/435, Feinstein represents whole state 1/100
• Senators serve longer terms
• Senators are only one of one hundred e.g. Schiff - 2 year term, Feinstein - 6 year term
• Senators are more likely to chair a committee or sub-committee or hold some leadership position
• Senators enjoy greater name recognition state-wide and even nation-wide
• The senate is seen as a recruiting pool and launch pad for presidential and vice-presidential candidates e.g. six Senators and two former ran for president in 2008
• Senators enjoy significantly exclusive powers
• House members frequently seek election to the Senate e.g. 2012 there were 52 former House members in the Senate

No

• Both houses have equal power in the passage of legislation - Congress's key function
• Both houses must approve the initiation of constitutional amendments
• Members of both houses receive equal salaries

• Political party
• Constituents - representation to keep them happy
• The administration - persuasion by the members of the executive branch
• Pressure groups
• Colleagues and staff - so many votes that Congressmen have to rely on eachother for information
• Personal beliefs e.g. such as abortion or capital punishment

• Pork-barrel projects are added to the federal budget by members of the appropriation committees of Congress
• This allows delivery of federal funds to the local district or state of the appropriation committee member, often accommodating major campaign contributors
• To a certain extent, a member of Congress is judged by their ability to deliver funds to their constituents. 
• The Big Dig was a project to relocate an existing 3.5-mile (5.6 km) section of the interstate highway system underground. It ended up costing $14.6 billion, or over $4 billion per mile. Tip O'Neill (D-Mass), after whom one of the Big Dig tunnels was named, pushed to have the Big Dig funded by the federal government while he was the Speaker of the House

• Exist in both houses
• Permanent, policy-specialist committees
• Typical Senate committee - 18 members
• Typical House committee - 30-40 members
• Party balance is in the same proportion as that which exists within the chamber as a whole
• 113th Congress Dem. majority in the Senate, and Rep. majority in the House

• Conduct the committee stage of bills in the legislative process
• To conduct investigations within the committee's policy area
• In the Senate they begin the confirmation process of numerous presidential appointments - only a recommendatory vote but rarely overturned

• One of the standing committees but performs a different function
• Prioritises bills  coming from the committee stage on to the House floor for their second reading
• A vital role due to the sheer number of bills in the queue
• Much smaller and skewed to the majority party e.g. 2013 9 Reps. and 4 Dems.
• Chair of this committee is considered one of the most influential posts in Congress

• Ad hoc and only set up to consider one particular bill
• Reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the same bill
• Members are drawn from each house
• Likely to draw a final version of the bill
• Power is checked as one house may refuse to sign the changes
• Rarely used nowadays as there are other ways to resolve issues

• Known as 'special' or 'investigative' committees
• Nearly all are ad hoc
• They are set up when either the investigation does not fall within the policy area of one standing committee or it's too time consuming for a standing committee

• Those who chair standing committees are always drawn from the majority party in that chamber e.g. 2013-14 all Senate chairs - Dem. all House chairs Rep.
• The seniority rule - a rule stating that the chair of Congressional standing committee will be the member of the majority party with the longest continuous service on that committee

• First reading
• Committee stage
• Timetabling
• Second reading
• Third reading
• Conference committee
• Presidential action

• A device by which an indicidual senator, or group of senators, can attempt to talk a bill to death by using delaying tactics
• A three-fifths vote is reguired to a end a filibuster