A Brief Lesson for Students About Congress

I feel it is a good idea to have our students learn or review a little bit about our government, and basically how it is run. Many of you may know already, but it can be a good review.

The federal government and the state government are divided into three branches. They are known as the legislative, executive, and the judicial. Each branch has their own special duties. The legislative branch makes the laws. The executive branch carries out the laws, and the judicial branch decides if the laws are constitutional or not. This means, they see to it that the laws follow the rules of our constitution.

The legislative duties of our federal government are carried out by Congress. Congress has two houses. One is the House of Representatives and the other is the Senate. A representative is a person who acts for other people. The people elect their representatives, who serve in the House of Representatives or the Senate.

As stated before, the executive branch sees that the laws are carried out. The president of the United States is the head of the executive branch. The job of the president is to see to it that the laws are carried out.

The president also suggests laws. If the representatives in Congress goes along with the president, they will pass a bill and then the bill becomes the law. Presently, when we read the news or hear it on television, we learn that the House of Representatives and the Senate (which means our Congress) do not agree with one another regarding taxes and health care. There are some people who do not want to raise our taxes and there are others who feel we need to raise taxes in order to help people who are in need.

Because of these differences, Congress is not able to pass a bill until the House of Representatives and the Senate agree. This is done by a vote. If they agree, the president has to sign the bill and then it becomes the law. It is important for the three branches of government to check on each other so that no person or group can gain too much power.

They will have to compromise otherwise the United States government cannot make a law which at present involves mainly taxes and health care.

The following is a good example of how a law was passed in the year 1906. Some meat packers were putting spoiled meat into cans. When the President of the United States, at that time, learned about this practice, he asked Congress to pass a law that would say no food or drugs that were not good to eat could be packaged for sale. Congress passed the law. This law is called the “Pure Food and Drug Act.” Our government checks the places where food and drugs are packaged and makes sure the law is obeyed. If this law was not passed, can you realize how many sick people there would be?

Source: Summary Reading, “What is the Constitution?” A lesson for students


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *