What is the difference between proportional and equal representation

Senate and has been approved by the President, or if a presidential veto has been overridden, the bill becomes a law and is enforced by the government. The governor may sign it, which enacts the bill into law. The bill is then reconsidered usually with suggestions for amendments by the governor and returned to the governor if both chambers approve of the changes. An approved bill is then sent to the President.

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Origins The American Revolution was, in part, a contest about the very definition of representation. Office of the Historian: history mail. Framers hoped biennial elections would bring stability to the Senate, and in turn, to other branches of the new government.

At the start of the first session of Congress in , the senators were divided into the three classes by lot with same-state senators assigned to separate groups. Subsequent elections to all classes were for the full six-year Senate term. No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Constitution, Article I, section 3, clause 3]. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention supported establishing membership limitations for House and Senate members. Influenced by British and state precedents, they set age, citizenship, and inhabitancy qualifications for senators, but voted against proposed religion and property requirements.

Age: The constitutional framers debated the minimum age for representatives before they considered the same qualification for senators. In The Federalist , No. Instead, they debated the length of time members of Congress should be citizens before taking office.

In other states, upper house members fulfilled a five, three, or one-year requirement, while state representatives completed a residency period of one to three years. The Virginia Plan made no mention of citizenship when Edmund Randolph introduced it to the convention in May.

Two months later, the Committee of Detail reported a draft of the Constitution. Article V, section 3 included a four-year citizenship requirement for senators. On August 9, Gouverneur Morris moved to replace the four-year clause with a fourteen-year minimum. Later that day, delegates voted against citizenship requirements of fourteen, thirteen, and ten years before passing the nine-year provision, making the Senate requirement two years longer than that for the House of Representatives.

Two foreign-born framers expressed these opposing considerations. According to Pierce Butler, recent arrivals were dangerously attached to their countries of origin, a particular concern for senators whose role would include review of foreign treaties.

From his own experience, he believed that naturalized citizens would need sufficient time to learn and appreciate American laws and customs before they could serve in government.

He agreed with Benjamin Franklin that a strict policy would hinder positive immigration and offend those Europeans who had supported the Revolutionary War. On August 13, Wilson moved to reduce the Senate qualification by two years. Delegates rejected his motion, and confirmed the nine-year requirement by an 8 to 3 vote. The qualification first came under consideration on August 6 when the Committee of Detail reported its draft of the Constitution.

Constitution, Article I, section 3, clause 4]. Both provisions passed without dissent. Later in the month, however, increasing support for a separation of powers motivated the Committee of Unfinished Portions to create the electoral college system, rather than have the national legislature elect the president.

The committee also suggested that a vice president succeed the executive in the event of a vacancy in that position, but would otherwise serve as the president of the Senate, casting votes only to break a tie.

On September 7, Elbridge Gerry and George Mason spoke against the proposed measure, believing that it conflicted with the goal to keep the executive and legislative departments separate and distinct. Roger Sherman defended the clause. The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

Before Constitutional framers designated the vice president as the president of the Senate on September 7, , they granted senators the right to choose other Senate officers, including those from outside the elected body. The Senate modeled its own offices of the secretary, the sergeant at arms, and the doorkeeper after positions established in the Continental Congress.

Unlike the secretary and the sergeant at arms, the president pro tempore is an elected member of the Senate, chosen by the Senate to preside in the absence of the vice president. However, in September, Roger Sherman observed that, except in the case of a tie, the presiding officer would be deprived of his vote. Rather than disadvantage one state by elevating its senator to a non-voting position, framers made the vice president the president of the Senate.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Early in the Constitutional Convention , most delegates agreed that the inclusion of an impeachment provision would help to hold national officers accountable for their actions. Based on those of the British Parliament and the state constitutions, the Senate impeachment provision gave senators the responsibility for trying impeached officials, including the president of the United States. Throughout the summer of , committee members reported impeachment plans to the full convention.

The preliminary resolutions were considered by the Committee of the Whole and returned to selected delegates for further revision. In June and July, the framers debated the merits of involving Congress in the impeachment process. The constitutional plan then went for review to the Committee of Eleven, consisting of one member from every state represented at the convention.