Congress

What Congress covers

A bicameral legislature of two very different chambers, how a bill survives the committee stage, and the powers — money, confirmation, oversight, impeachment — Congress uses against the executive.

The 4 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The Composition of CongressRecall questions on what bicameral means, the size and apportionment of the House, how often seats are redistributed and how senators are allocated.Open →
• The Powers of Each Chamber, Leadership and ElectionsRecall questions on the powers of the House and Senate, their leaders, the filibuster and cloture, the Rules Committee, the social make-up of Congress, incumbency and gerrymandering, midterms and divided government.Open →
• How a Bill Passes CongressRecall questions on the stages within a chamber, where most bills die, how the House can force one out of committee and the role of conference.Open →
• The Power of the Purse, Oversight and RepresentationRecall questions on congressional oversight and the power of the purse, shutdowns and impeachment, the delegate, trustee and politico models of representation, pork barrel politics and logrolling, and the War Powers Resolution.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Congress further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Authorisation vs Appropriation

  Authorisation: legislative permission for a programme or activity. Appropriation: legislative allocation of money.

• Gerrymandering vs Malapportionment

  Gerrymandering: boundaries manipulated for partisan advantage. Malapportionment: districts contain substantially unequal populations.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does it mean to say Congress is bicameral?

   Model answer

   It consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and both must agree before a bill becomes law.

2. 2

   How many members sit in the House of Representatives, and how are they distributed?

   Model answer

   There are 435 members, distributed between the states in proportion to population, with every state guaranteed at least one.

3. 3

   How often are House seats redistributed between the states, and on what basis?

   Model answer

   Every ten years, following the national census, in a process known as reapportionment.

4. 4

   How many senators are there, and how are they allocated?

   Model answer

   There are 100 senators, two for each state regardless of that state's population.

5. 5

   Explain how Senate elections are staggered.

   Model answer

   Senators serve six-year terms and roughly one third of the Senate is elected every two years, so the chamber is never wholly renewed at once.

6. 6

   Which amendment introduced the direct election of senators, and what did it replace?

   Model answer

   The Seventeenth Amendment of 1913, which replaced election of senators by state legislatures.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Congress revision questions

What does Congress cover in AQA A-Level Politics?

4 subtopics: the composition of congress, the powers of each chamber, leadership and elections, how a bill passes congress and the power of the purse, oversight and representation. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Congress organised?

By the AQA 7152 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.