The Legislative Branch

You will be completing several tasks in order to understand the functions of the Legislative Branch.

1.  The major function of the Legislative Branch is to make laws. Use your textbook to find the information about how a bill becomes a law. Create a flow chart that explains this process.

2.  Go to the following site:

http://capwiz.com/c-span/dbq/officials/

3.  Go to this site, which is called "Issues and Legislation":

http://capwiz.com/c-span/issues/

  Read and summarize two bills that you find interesting.  Then, predict how your Representative and Senators would vote on these bills, given their party affiliations.  Also, how would you want your Representative and Senators to vote on the bills? (In other words, what is your opinion on these issues?)

4.  What is a Committee?  What does it do?  On this site:

http://www.c-span.org/congress/committees.asp

research several committees to answer these questions.  Differentiate between these types of committees:  Standing, Special, Joint (This information is also available in the textbook.)

5.  Here is a list of subjects from either the Senate or the House. Make a chart with the headings: Senate, House, and Both Chambers of Congress. Put the items below underneath the correct heading.