The United States Congress is a bicameral legislature divided into two equal institutions: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each state sends elected representatives and senators to Congress, and although the House and the Senate are structured differently and have their own roles and responsibilities, they work together to pass legislation. No bill can become a law without passing both houses of Congress.

The House of Representatives is meant to be "the peoples house," or the part of government most responsive to public opinion. Each states representation in the House is based on population, with each state getting at least one member. California has the most members (54), while several states, including Delaware, Vermont, Montana, and Alaska, each have only one member. Every member of the House represents a district within a state, and each district has roughly the same population. Membership in the House is capped at 435. To keep them responsive to the people, House members face reelection every two years, and the entire body is elected at the same time. A person must be twenty-five years old and a resident of the state he or she represents in order to run for a seat in the House.

The Senate, on the other hand, is meant to be a body of statesmen who make decisions based on experience and wisdom, not on the unpredictable whims of the people. As a check on excessive democracy, only one-third of the Senate is elected every two years. The framers hoped that staggered elections of only portions of the Senate would prevent a single popular faction from taking control. Each state has two senators, regardless of population. Senators serve six-year terms, and one-third of the Senate is up for election every two years. A person must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the United States for at least nine years, and a resident of the state he or she represents in order to run for a seat in the Senate.

Congress divides its legislative, oversight, and internal administrative tasks among approximately two hundred committees and subcommittees. Within assigned areas, these functional sub-units gather information, compare and ev...