American Center Bulletin

October 2005

The American Senate

The American Senate
A Word from the Center
Notes from the AIRC

Origin of the Senate: The Great Compromise

On July 16, 1787, the 55 Founding Fathers meeting in Philadelphia reached what is commonly called the "Great Compromise." The compromise emerged from the struggle between the large states and the small states over the apportionment of seats in the Congress. The Framers easily accepted by principle of bicameralism – a two-house national legislature –but disagreed strongly over how each chamber would be constituted. This was the most contentious issue at the Constitutional Convention and nearly led to its dissolution. The large states favored the "nationalist" principle of popularly-based representation, but the smaller states insisted on a "federal" principle ensuring representation by states. The smaller states feared that if representation was based on population, the larger states would quickly dominate the new Congress.

In the end, the Framers reached an agreement: House seats would be apportioned among the states based on population and Representatives would be directly elected by the people; the Senate would be composed of two Senators per state – regardless of size or population – indirectly elected by the state legislature. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 39, "The House of Representatives will derive its powers from the people of America ....The Senate, on the other hand, will derive its powers from the States, as political and co-equal societies; and these will be represented on the principle of equality in the Senate." The principle of two Senators from each state was further guaranteed by Article V of the Constitution: "no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of equal Suffrage in the Senate."

Decisions made at the Constitutional Convention about the Senate still shape its organization and operation today, and make it unique among national legislative institutions. William E. Gladstone, four-time British Prime Minister during the 19th century, said the United States Senate is a "remarkable body, the most remarkable of all the inventions of modern politics." Plainly, the Framers did not want the Senate to be another House of Representatives, and the institutional uniqueness of the upper house flows directly from the decisions they made at the Constitutional Convention.

Several of those constitutional decisions led to important and enduring features of the Senate and its legislative process. These features include constituency, size, term of office, and special prerogatives.

Constituency

The one state-two Senator formula means that all Senators represent constituencies that are more heterogeneous than the districts represented by most House members. As a result, Senators must accommodate a larger range of interests and pressures in their representational roles. Further, because each Senator has an equal vote regardless of his or her state’s population, the Senate remains an oddly apportioned institution: Senators from the 26 smallest states, who (according to the 2000 census) represent 17.8% of the nation’s population, constitute a majority of the Senate – a reality which has aroused little public interest or concern.

The Framers, of course, could not have foreseen the country’s population increases, migratory patterns, or huge disparities in state sizes. While Members from small and large states all have comparable committee and floor responsibilities, few are likely to deny that Senators from the more populous states, such as California, face a broader array of representational pressures than lawmakers from the smaller states, such as Wyoming. An indirect effect of Senate apportionment, some scholars contend, is that contemporary floor leaders of either party are likely to come from smaller rather than larger states because they can better accommodate the additional leadership workload.

Size

The one state-two Senator formula also meant that from the outset the Senate’s membership was relatively small compared to the House. When it first convened it March 1789, there were 22 Senators (North Carolina and Rhode Island soon entered the Union to increase the number to 26). As new states entered the Union, the Senate’s size expanded to the 100 that it is today.

The Senate’s relatively small size has significantly shaped how it works. In the smaller and more intimate Senate, vigorous leadership has been the exception rather than the rule. The relative informality of Senate procedures testifies to the looser reins of leadership. Significantly, there is large deference to minority views and all Senators typically have ample opportunity to be heard on the issues of the day. Compared with the House’s complex rules and voluminous precedents, the Senate’s rules are brief and often set aside. Informal negotiations among Senators interested in a given measure are commonplace. Although too large for its members to draw their chairs around the fireplace on a chilly winter morning – as they did in the early years –the Senate today retains a clubby atmosphere that the House lacks.

Term of Office, Qualifications, and Selection

A key goal of the Framers was to create a Senate differently constituted from the House so it would be less subject to popular passions and impulses. "The use of the Senate," wrote James Madison in Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, "is to consist in its proceedings with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch." An oft-quoted story about the "coolness" of the Senate involves George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who was in France during the Constitutional Convention. Upon his return, Jefferson visited Washington and asked why the Convention delegates had created a Senate. "Why did you pour that coffee into your saucer?" asked Washington. "To cool it," said Jefferson. "Even so," responded Washington, "we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it."

To foster values such as deliberation, reflection, continuity, and stability in the Senate, the Framers made several important decisions. First, they set the senatorial term of office at six years even though the duration of a Congress is two years. The Senate, in brief, was to be a "continuing body" with one-third of its membership up for election at any one time. As Article I, Section 3, states: "Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes." Second, to be a Senator, an individual had to meet different qualifications compared to service in the House of Representatives. To hold office, Senators have to be at least 30 years of age and nine years a citizen; House members are to be 25 years old and seven years a citizen. Senators, in brief, were to be more seasoned and experienced than representatives. Finally, the indirect election of Senators by state legislatures would serve to check precipitous decisions which might emanate from the directly-elected House and buttress the states’ role as a counterweight to the national government.

Direct election of Senators came with the Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913. A by-product of the Progressive movement, it was designed to end corruption in state legislatures (involving the purchase of Senate seats), blunt the power of party machine bosses and corporations, prevent deadlocks in the election of Senators, and make Senators directly answerable to the people for their actions and decisions.

Special Prerogatives

Although the House and Senate share all lawmaking authority, including overriding presidential vetoes, the Framers assigned special prerogatives to the Senate. Under the Constitution’s "advice and consent" provisions (Article II, Section 2), only the Senate considers the ratification of treaties (which requires a two-thirds vote) and presidential appointments for such positions as federal judgeships, ambassadorships, or Cabinet offices (all of which require a majority vote for approval). The Framers entrusted "advice and consent" duties exclusively to the Senate in part because they expected these matters to be handled in a thoughtful and responsible manner. The qualities they embedded in a continuing body – stability, experience, and a longer perspective – were valuable in handling issues involving national security and international relations. The Senate’s role in the appointments process, wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 76, would serve as "an excellent check upon the spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to preventing the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity."

The Constitution (Article I, Section 3) also grants the Senate the "sole Power to try all Impeachments." The House possesses the constitutional authority to decide by majority vote whether to impeach (or indict) executive or judicial officials while the Senate, by a two-thirds vote, determines whether to convict and remove from office any impeached official. "Where else," wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 65, "than in the Senate could have been found a tribunal sufficiently dignified, or sufficiently independent? What other body would be likely to feel confidence enough in its own situation, to preserve unawed and uninfluenced the necessary impartiality between an individual accused, and the representatives of the people, his accusers?"

Understandably, the Senate’s constitutional origins continue to shape its organization and operations. Three features in particular are noteworthy, because they contribute to making the Senate the unique institution that it is. They are extended debate, the lack of formal party leaders until the early 1900s, and the use of unanimous consent to conduct most of its business.

Early Senate

The Senate originally met, virtually in secret, on the second floor of Federal Hall in New York City in a room that allowed no spectators. For five years, no notes were published on Senate proceedings.

A procedural issue of the early Senate was what role should the vice president, the President of the Senate have? Initially, the first vice president was allowed to craft legislation and participate in debates, but those rights were taken away relatively quickly. Later vice presidents made Senate attendance a rarity, but John Adams seldom missed a session. However, Adams’ regal clothing, love of ceremony and titles, and tendency to lecture made him somewhat of a laughingstock. Interestingly, although the Founders intended the Senate to be the slower legislative body, in the early years of the Republic, it was the House that took its time passing legislation. Both Hamilton’s Bank of the United States and Assumption Bill easily passed the Senate, only to meet opposition from the House.

Thomas Jefferson began the vice presidential tradition of only attending Senate sessions on special occasions. Despite his frequent absences, Jefferson did make his mark on the body in the form of the Senate book of parliamentary procedure, the one that is still used to this day.

Filibusters in the U.S. Senate

In a legislature or other decision-making body, a filibuster is an attempt to obstruct a particular decision from being taken by using up the time available, typically through an extremely long speech.

The term first came into use in the United States Senate, where senate rules permit a senator, or a series of senators, to speak for as long as they wish and on any topic they choose. The term comes from the early 17th century, where Buccaneers were known in England as filibusters. This term had evolved from the Spanish filibustero which had come from the French word flibustier, which again evolved from the Dutch vrijbuiter (freebooter).

A similar form of parliamentary obstruction practiced in the United States and other countries is called "slow walking." It specifically refers to the extremely slow speed with which legislators walk to the podium to cast their ballots. For example, in South Korea this tactic is known as a "cow walk." In general it refers to the intentional delay of the normal business of the legislature.

Under Senate rules, the speech need not be relevant to the topic under discussion, and there have been cases in which a senator has undertaken part of a speech by reading from a telephone directory. Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) set a record in 1957 by filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes, although the bill ultimately passed. Thurmond broke the previous record of 22 hours and 26 minutes set by Wayne Morse (I-OR) in 1953 protesting the Tidelands Oil legislation.

Preparations for a filibuster can be elaborate. Sometimes cots are brought into the hallways or cloakrooms for senators to sleep on. According to Newsweek, "They used to call it ‘taking to the diaper’, a phrase that referred to the preparation undertaken by a prudent senator before an extended filibuster." Strom Thurmond visited a steam room before his filibuster in order to dehydrate himself so he could drink without urinating. An aide stood by in the cloakroom with a pail in case of emergency.

Filibusters have become much more common in recent decades. Twice as many filibusters took place in the 1991-1992 legislative session as in the entire 19th century.

About the Senate Committee System

Due to the high volume and complexity of its work, the Senate divides its tasks among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and four joint committees. Although the Senate committee system is similar to that of the House of Representatives, it has its own guidelines, within which each committee adopts its own rules. This creates considerable variation among the panels.

Standing committees generally have legislative jurisdiction. Subcommittees handle specific areas of the committee’s work. Select and joint committees generally handle oversight or housekeeping responsibilities.

The chair of each committee and a majority of its members represent the majority party. The chair primarily controls a committee’s business. Each party assigns its own members to committees, and each committee distributes its members among its subcommittees. The Senate places limits on the number and types of panels any one senator may serve on and chair.

Committees receive varying levels of operating funds and employ varying numbers of aides. Each hires its own staff. The majority party controls most committee staff and resources, but a portion is shared with the minority.

Several thousand bills and resolutions are referred to committees during each two-year Congress. Committees select a small percentage for consideration, and those not addressed often receive no further action. The bills that committees report help to set the Senate’s agenda.

When a committee or subcommittee favors a measure, it usually takes four actions. First, it asks relevant executive agencies for written comments on the measure. Second, it holds hearings to gather information and views from non-committee experts. At committee hearings, these witnesses summarize submitted statements and then respond to questions from the senators. Third, a committee meets to perfect the measure through amendments, and non-committee members sometimes attempt to influence the language. Fourth, when language is agreed upon, the committee sends the measure back to the full Senate, usually along with a written report describing its purposes and provisions.

A committee’s influence extends to its enactment of bills into law. A committee that considers a measure will manage the full Senate’s deliberation on it. Also, its members will be appointed to any conference committee created to reconcile its version of a bill with the version passed by the House of Representatives.

Other types of committees deal with the confirmation or rejection of presidential nominees. Committee hearings that focus on the implementation and investigation of programs are known as oversight hearings, whereas committee investigations examine allegations of wrongdoing.

U.S. Senate Caucuses

Informal congressional groups and organizations of Members with shared interests in specific issues or philosophies have been part of the American policymaking process since colonial times. Typically, these groups organize without official recognition by the chamber and are not funded through the appropriation process.

In the Senate there is one officially recognized caucus – the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control established by law in 1985.

Women in the U.S. Senate

There are currently 14 women serving in the 100-person body. The Senatorial representation of three states (California, Washington and Maine) is entirely female. California’s current two senators (Boxer and Feinstein) are the first two women to be elected to the U.S. Senate in the same election (in 1992) from the same state. Seven of the women (or half of the current female Senators) currently serving as Senators have also been elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives – a distinction once held by only Margaret Chase Smith.

Notable Events

Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman to serve as a Senator on November 21, 1922, when she was appointed for one day to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Thomas E. Watson.

On January 12, 1932, Hattie Caraway became the first female Senator elected to office, and on January 3, 1949, Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve terms in both the House and the Senate.

The first session of Senate to be open to the public was held on February 11, 1794, and on February 27, 1986, the Senate allowed its debates to be televised on a trial basis (which was later made permanent).

The American Center acknowledges the following web sites in compiling the essay:

http://www.senate.gov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Senate

A Word From the Center

The beginning of October traditionally marks the start of a new judicial year for the Supreme Court of the United States, which, as I write, is awaiting confirmation by the U.S. Senate of a new Chief Justice nominated by the U.S. President. With that in mind, we at the Center thought this an appropriate time to highlight the Senate – which, along with the U.S. House of Representatives, forms the U.S. Congress – and its multifaceted role in the governance of the United States as a whole. As much as I know about the Senate, our editors have included a few facts that even I found surprising, so I hope you’ll find their essay enlightening, too.

Meanwhile, my colleagues and I are greatly looking forward to welcoming incoming Deputy Director Ruth Bennett to the American Center upon her arrival in mid-October for the start of a three-year tour here. You’ll be reading more about Ruth in the November issue of our bulletin and then hearing directly from her in this space soon thereafter. In the meantime, we hope that you’ll join us in making her feel especially welcome whenever you meet her either in Mumbai or in the course of her initial travels around western India, and that those first contacts will be only the beginning of many mutually productive and enjoyable relationships.

Linda C. Cheatham
Director

Notes from the AIRC

A Select Webliography on Congress

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa112798.htm
About.com – Congressional Committee System

http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/glossary.htm
C-Span Congressional Glossary

http://congress.indiana.edu/
The Center on Congress at Indiana University

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/usgd/budget.html
Columbia University Libraries – U.S. Government Documents: The Budget Process

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
Congress.org

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/glossary.html
GPO Access – Congressional Bills: Glossary

http://www.cbo.gov/
Congressional Budget Office

http://www.firstgov.gov
FirstGov.gov

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/
GPO Access – Congressional Reports: Main Page

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html
GPO Access – Legislative Branch Resources

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/legbranch/legbranch.html
The Library of Congress – Legislative Branch

http://thomas.loc.gov/
The Library of Congress – Legislative Information on the Internet

http://www.ncsl.org/public/leglinks.cfm
National Conference of State Legislatures – State Legislatures Internet Links

http://congress.nw.dc.us/nyt/home/
The New York Times – Congressional Guide

http://www.opensecrets.org/cmteprofiles/index.asp
opensecrets.org – Congress Committee Profiles

http://www.house.gov/
United States House of Representatives

http://www.senate.gov
United States Senate