Talk:United States Congress/Archive 1

message: Shouldn't the statement '..the Senate is fully equal to the House..' be '..the Senate is fully equal in all legislation except finance bills, which must originate in the House...' ?
Then list the special powers of each chamber (Voting Impeachment for the House, trying Impeachment and the 'consent sections' for the Senate.
How many representatives does the US congress have? 
-- Marijn
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Why is it United States Congress/Alaska?  Why not Alaska/United States Congress?  Why not Representatives from Alaska or something else that does not presuppose some sort of bogus hierarchy like this?
Yours for a subpage-free Wikipedia,
LMS
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Also, shouldn't the description of the allotment of Representatives be dated nicely (as in, "As of the reapportionment following the 1990 Census..."). I'd add this but I don't know if the 2000 Census-based reapportionment has happened yet. -- EdwardOConnor
We could just update it when it changes: Apportionment Population and Number of Representatives, by State: Census 2000 ---Jagged
The reapportionment following the 2000 Census takes effect for the 2002 elections.  The 2000 elections followed the 1990 Census. --RjLesch
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Is this the Congressional Biographical Directory copyrighted?  If not, it could be used to get stub biographies of everyone who's ever served in Congress, which would be useful. john 05:00 May 3, 2003 (UTC)
:The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress says in its Circular 1, Copyright Basics, "Works by the U. S. Government are not eligible for U. S. copyright protection."  So if that directory is a federal publication (as the Congressional Record is), the information in it is available.  OtherDave 00:26, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: It's common practice in the U.S. to refer to any member of Congress who is not a member of the Democratic or Republican parties as an independent.  Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords, formerly a Republican, lists himself as an Independent on his official web site.  (In the opposite direction, it's common practice in Minnesota to refer to what is officially the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party as the Democrats.)  OtherDave 00:26, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: General discussion

message: I am going to move the specific powers of the houses, such as the advice and consent power of the Senate and the Impeachment power of the House to their respective pages.  This page should probably focus on powers which Congress as a whole is responsible for. Pmadrid 01:55, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Specific Powers of Houses 

message: There is probably a simple answer, but how does one change one third of 100?  Is it approximated by the sequence 33,33,34 or is it an average over time.  I'm Confused Dainamo 00:20, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: It is approximated, 33-33-34, as you suggest; the Constitution states that the number must be as close to one-third as practicable. -- Emsworth 00:06, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Changing One Third

message: :A candidate gets to run in an election by winning a primary.
This may be true in most cases when a party's endorsement is at stake, but I am certain there are other methods of qualifying for a ballot. I feel this statement is broad, vague and misleading. Ground 03:26, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: You are correct.  Primaries are used by the two major parties, but are not required by law. (If they were, it would make it impossible for anyone to run as an independent.) A party may use any method it wants to nominate a candidate.  For smaller parties, getting their candidates on the ballot usually involves gathering a specified number of signatures (which varies from state to state). Funnyhat 00:53, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  Primaries, in states that use them, are the method by which a party chooses its candidate for the general election.  Depending on state law, the general election may permit write-in candidates, so in theory a person unaffiliated with any party could organize a write-in campaign and be elected to the House or the Senate.  OtherDave 00:26, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Congress of the United States#Elections|Elections]]

message: From the article:
:According to Citizens Against Government Waste, conference committees even add pork to legislation. For the 2005 budget conference committees added 3407 pork barrel appropriations, budget, up from 47 pork barrel appropriations in 1994.
Dinopup 02:48, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pork 

message: New to Wikipedia, I didn't want to update the article itself, but there should be a section on 'Congressional Pay'. I noticed there is a page for Salaries of United States Senators (isn't pay the same for Representative and Senator?). I found the same data here: *CongressLink (the wiki link does not list a source). Both list salaries back to 1789, the effective date of the United States Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation.
With this historical context, perhaps 'Congressional Salaries' should be given its own page with information about formulas for raises, versus inflation, average American income or the minimum wage, as well as how members of Congress can vote to raise their pay (I don't know enough about this process), including information regarding the so-called '1989 Midnight Congressional Paygrab'.
In addition to salaries, reference to benefits, pensions, honoraria, income taxes and additional income while in office should be explored. --RickAguirre 30 June 2005 15:47 (UTC)
:This graph is mostly a representation of inflation since 1860; and is therefore misleading. A section on pay and the 27th amendment should be included. Septentrionalis 13:25, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Congressional Salaries 

message: It would be worth noting that each elected member of Congress has his or her own website. While I've not visited each and every member of Congress's website, it is interesting that most I've seen do not publish their voting record outright. Indeed, each member tends to postively highlight issues which they deem important, and minimize or ignore other issues around which they may have actually voted on.
Perhaps a review of the respective websites is in order, with an emphasis on what most of these websites have in common, as well as useful information that is omitted (such as voting record and salary info). --RickAguirre 30 June 2005 15:47 (UTC)
: The main page of the House and the Senate web sites include links (or links to links) to each member's site. OtherDave 00:26, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Congressional Websites & Voting Records 

message: Can I sugest splitting Bills and resolutions section off into its own article, and then trimming it down. (As we did with the History section.) --Barberio 18:36, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, Chris.  If you want to edit the entire page (or the top section), click on the "edit this page" tab all the way at the top.  Although reading over those paragraphs, it looks as though "House" is fine.  It says "House of Representatives" earlier in the paragraph, so we know what House we're talking about, and there's no need to be unnecessarily wordy.  —Cleared as filed. 12:49, 18 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bills and resolutions