Most Senators and Representatives hold law degrees, with a great many having practiced as lawyers. Other highly common professions include business and academia, but it would certainly be fair to term Congress a “lawyer’s club.” This prevalence can best be explained by the complimentary natures of politics and legal affairs, subjects whose contents often reinforce and give credence to each other. The flexible schedule and high salary which lawyers typically enjoy also come in handy for aspiring Congress men and women, as does the monetary support often provided to political candidates by law firms.

While Congress men and women naturally seek to authentically represent their constituents’ interests, they do not seem to be allowing these opinions to guide their policy votes any more than is historically usual. Every single Senator and representative comes face to face with this most classic of Congressional dilemmas: how best to balance their own political beliefs against the urgings of the voters to whom they owe their position. Most times, members make their choices on an issue-by-issue basis, weighing the virulence (or lack thereof) of the voters against party leaders’ pressures and their own leanings. Often, representatives and Senators hold many beliefs in common with the people in their districts, of which they themselves of course are a product, but this is not always the case. Strict adherence to constituents’ desires most often results when an issue is easily understood and highly visible, whereas those policies that are poorly comprehended by the public, require specialized and/or insider information, or are otherwise quite complicated are usually ultimately decided by the Congress person’s own opinions.

While it is indeed sometimes possible for an incumbent candidate to ride the sitting President’s coattails to electoral victory, overall this tactic is hardly ever successful. Whether employed by a Senator or a House representative, the odds of coattail campaigning proving effective are slim to none. This grim reality may seem surprising at first but a few key factors help explain its unlikelihood. Firstly, in order for the “coattail theory” to work, the sitting President and the Congressional incumbent must be from the same political party. Even if this first condition is met, it is very difficult for an incumbent, whether from the Senate or House, to lay claim to any significant part of a President’s popular initiatives. Sole credit is nearly impossible to establish and so any candidate’s attempts in this regard are overwhelmingly ignored by voters. In some cases, the “coattail strategy” can even backfire against an incumbent, as voters take these assertions as proof of a candidate’s desperation and/or false pretensions.

There is, in fact, a bias against action in Congress—in other words, it’s much easier to kill a bill than it is to get one passed. Logically speaking, this makes sense—it should be harder to pass a bill than it is to kill it, that way frivolous laws don’t get passed. Procedurally speaking, this is correct because there are many opportunities for a bill’s opponent to destroy a bill, whereas there is only one of two ways to get a bill passed (signed by the President or a veto override by Congress). 

It is often believed that the President of the United States declares war. While the President may announce that war has been declared, because the President acts with the consent of Congress in the matter of war, s/he must first go to the Congress of the United States in a joint session and ask for the declaration of war.

The Senate procedure to end a filibuster, which requires a three-fifths vote in the Senate, is called the Cloture Rule. It originally required a two-thirds vote in the Senate, but this proved too difficult to attain, so the limit was lowered to three-fifths.

The right to vote to impeach officials is reserved for the House of Representatives, but it is the Senate that has the power to try the officials that the House of Representatives votes to impeach.

Logrolling is the term given to the exchange of political favors between two individuals or groups. One group offers political concessions to another group in exchange for the second group offering its support in favor of a bill that the first group wishes to get passed.

In Congressional procedure it is quite common for one group to try to add an unrelated amendment to a bill that seems likely to garner a lot of support. The usual goal is to try to pass a controversial or unpopular measure by hiding it in a much larger bill about something unrelated. This amendment is called a “rider.”

A Select Committee is a temporary committee created with a prescribed purpose, usually to investigate one particular issue, and is then disbanded once that issue has been dealt with.