CHAPTER 2
THELEGISLATIVE BRANCH (CONGRESS)
In this chapter, you will learn about:
The Legislative Branch of the U.S. government. The House of Representatives.
The Senate.
The process for making federal laws.
The Legislative Branch is one branch or part of the government. Another name for the Legislative Branch is the U.S. Congress.
The Constitution says that Congress makes federal laws. When the Founders were writing the Constitution, they believed that the power to make laws is the most important power in government. This is why the first section of the Constitution describes Congress and the power to make federal laws.
During the Constitutional Convention, the Founders agreed that the people who make laws should represent the states or parts of states where they lived.
When the Constitutional Convention started, the Founders did not agree on how many representatives each state should have in Congress. Some people thought that the number of representatives from each state should be based on the number of people living in the state. Others thought that each state should have the same number of representa- tives, no matter how many people lived in the state. They came to an agreement to have two parts to the U.S. Congress. The two parts to the U.S. Congress are the House of Representatives and the Senate.
States that have more people have more representatives in the House of Representatives, and every state in the United States has two U.S. Senators.
ONE NATION, ONE PEOPLE: THE USCIS CIVICS TEST TEXTBOOK