The framers of the Constitution created the United States Senate to protect the rights of individual states and safeguard minority opinion in a system of government designed to give greater power to the national government.

To be sure that one branch does not become more powerful than the others, the Government has a system called checks and balances. Through this system, each branch is given power to check on the other two branches. The President has the power to veto a bill sent from Congress, which would stop it from becoming a law.

make treaties with the approval of the Senate. veto bills and sign bills.

The Senate has the sole power to confirm those of the President’s appointments that require consent, and to provide advice and consent to ratify treaties. There are, however, two exceptions to this rule: the House must also approve appointments to the Vice Presidency and any treaty that involves foreign trade.

If a vacancy occurs due to a senator’s death, resignation, or expulsion, the Seventeenth Amendment of the Constitution allows state legislatures to empower the governor to appoint a replacement to complete the term or to hold office until a special election can take place.

Elec. Code § 145.001(e) permits a person to run for office and simultaneously be a candidate for President or Vice President of the United States. This statute permitted Lyndon B. Johnson to run for Vice President in 1960 and, at the same time, seek re-election as United States Senator from Texas.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives each represent a portion of their state known as a Congressional District, which averages 700,000 people. Senators however, represent the entire state.

Every two years the Senate convenes a new “congress,” a two-year period of legislative business. Typically, a congress is divided into two annual sessions of the Senate, convened in early January and adjourned in December.

No person may qualify as a candidate for more than one public office, whether federal, state, district, county, or municipal, if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other.

Practice of Law or Other Professions, and Related Prohibitions. Under the Ethics Reform Act, Members and senior staff are prohibited from engaging in professions that provide services involving a fiduciary relationship, including the practice of law and the sale of insurance or real estate.

The Ineligibility Clause (sometimes also called the Emoluments Clause, or the Incompatibility Clause, or the Sinecure Clause) is a provision in Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution that makes each incumbent member of Congress ineligible to hold an office established by the federal government …

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former enslaved people—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and …

Limits on Congress

• pass ex post facto laws, which outlaw acts after they have already been committed.
• pass bills of attainder, which punish individuals outside of the court system.
• suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a court order requiring the federal government to charge individuals arrested for crimes.

Other than to succeed to the presidency upon the death or resignation of a president, a vice president’s only constitutional duty is to preside over the Senate. When the vice president is absent, the president pro tempore presides over the Senate.

Majority and Minority Leaders

List of party leaders

Bills may be introduced by any member of either house. Nevertheless, while the Senate cannot originate revenue and appropriation bills, it does retain the power to amend or reject them.