Congress

This passage discusses the United States Congress.

Lexile Level: 540L

Categories: History People & Places

The United States Congress is the part of the government that passes laws. There are three branches of the U.S. government. The three branches are the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. Congress is the legislative branch. Legislative means having to do with making laws. The executive branch is the president. The judicial branch is the Supreme Court. Congress is made up of members from every state. There are two branches of Congress. One branch is the House of Representatives. The other branch is the Senate. Both branches work to pass laws. The Senate is made up of two members from every state. The population of a state votes for its senators. The Senate has a total of 100 senators. A senator serves for six years. There are 433 members of the House of Representatives. The number of representatives that a state has is determined by its population. Bigger states have more representatives. States are divided up into districts, so a person only votes for the representative of his or her district. Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms.