What Do U.S. Senators Do?
With less than forty days to go before November’s general election, voters in the U.S. are considering their choices — not only for who they want to be president but also for a host of other powerful elected positions. Among the positions up for grabs are thirty five seats in the U.S. Senate.
The importance of the Senate has come into sharp focus in the aftermath of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing. Since the news of her death , almost every news outlet has turned to analyse the upcoming partisan struggle to determine who will replace Ginsburg in the Supreme Court — a struggle that will primarily take place in the Senate. Click here to read more about the Senate’s role in appointing Supreme Court justices.
Approving Supreme Court nominees is just one of the many important responsibilities that fall on senators’ shoulders. The role of the Senate is established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution (the section that deals with the legislative branch of government).
Article One establishes both the Senate and the House of Representatives as the bodies which write and pass federal laws. The Senate currently has 100 members (two from each state), who are elected to six-year terms. These terms are staggered so that about a third of the Senate is up for reelection every two years. The Constitution gives the Senate an array of powers, which include the following:
Confirming Nominations: The Senate has the power to approve or reject any individual that the president picks to fill important jobs. These jobs include Supreme Court justices and lower-level federal judges, ambassadors to other countries, and officials in the president’s cabinet. Appointees have to face rigorous questioning from relevant Senate committees (the Judiciary Committee questions potential judges, the Foreign Relations Committee questions potential ambassadors, and so on) before the whole Senate votes on their candidacy.
Passing Laws: For a bill to become law, it must be approved by a majority of votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Because there are fewer senators than there are representatives (100 senators to 435 representatives), each senator has a lot of influence over the legislative process. This influence is increased by the filibuster, which allows senators to delay pieces of legislation by making long speeches on the floor of the Senate, effectively blocking voting from happening — in the 1950s one senator filibustered for over 24 hours without stopping!
Investigations: Both the Senate and the House can conduct investigations that can constrain the executive branch and educate the public. Using their power to summon witnesses to testify (Congress has powers of subpoena similar to that of a court), they can investigate any issue that involves the public good. Perhaps the most famous such investigation was the Watergate Investigation whose findings — that Richard Nixon abused his power in order to win the 1972 election — led to the downfall of the President.
Impeachment: When they work together, both Houses of Congress have the power to remove any official of the executive branch of government from their job — including the president. This process starts in the House of Representatives, which can decide to officially accuse (or “impeach”) an office holder of a crime. Once an individual is impeached, a trial is held in the Senate, with the Senators acting as a jury. If two-thirds of the Senate decide to convict a person, that person is removed from office.
Clearly, U.S. Senators have an enormous amount of power and influence. However, like any elected official, they depend on the voters to keep their jobs. If you live in one of the thirty four states that is holding a Senate election this year (list here), check out VotingSmarter’s #CandidateMatchmaker to see which candidates fit with your values!
Contributed by Ruairi Vaughan (Multimedia Content Creator, VotingSmarter)
