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The United States Senate THE UNITED STATES SENATE 110TH CONGRESS 2007 - 2009 Cover: “The United States Senate in Session” by George W. Breck after a photograph by William Kurtz, Harper’s Weekly, September 22, 1894 Prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate by the Senate Historical Office and Office of Senate Curator, with the assistance of the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms Additional copies available through Printing and Document Services, Room SH-B04 WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE As the Floor Leaders of the United States elected by the people, can debate the great Senate, we are pleased to welcome you to issues of our day and help forge the laws the chamber that has served as the Senate’s under which this nation operates. meeting place since 1859. By its continuity over the centuries, the United States Although its purpose is not always appar- Congress has vindicated the framers of ent, each legislative procedure, each action, our Constitution and affirmed their faith each debate, plays a role in the legislative that their great experiment in representative process. Even the architectural and artistic democracy would endure. features of the chamber represent various stages of development in the Senate’s more Our Constitution created a system of than two centuries of history. This booklet checks and balances between the separate is designed as a brief introduction to the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches workings of the Senate. In addition to your of the federal government. In the Legis- visit to the Senate chamber, we would like lative branch, the Senate represents each you to visit your senators’ offices, to attend of the states equally, while the House committee hearings, and to take a guided represents them according to the size of tour of the magnificent Capitol building. their respective populations. Each state has two senators, who will be referred to in debate as “the senior senator from ...” and “the junior senator from ...” depending on their respective length of service. The Constitution assigns specific powers Harry Reid, Majority Leader and responsibilities to Congress to enact legislation necessary to provide for the common defense and the general welfare of the United States. It gives the Senate exclu- sive authority to advise and consent on all nominations and treaties. Most important, Mitch McConnell, Republican Leader the Senate provides a forum where senators, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES SENATe 1 SENATORS BY STATE Senators and Office Suite Numbers Vice President Georgia Cheney, Richard B. (R) Chambliss, Saxby (R). SR-416 Isakson, Johnny (R). SR-120 Hawaii ARRANGED BY STATE Inouye, Daniel K. (D). SH-722 Senior senator listed first Akaka, Daniel K. (D). SH-141 Alabama Idaho Shelby, Richard C. (R). SH-110 Craig, Larry E. (R). SH-520 Sessions, Jeff (R) . SR-335 Crapo, Mike (R) . SD-239 Alaska Illinois Stevens, Ted (R). .SH-522 Durbin, Richard J. (D). SH-309 Murkowski, Lisa (R). SH-709 Obama, Barack (D). SH-713 Arizona Indiana McCain, John (R) . SR-241 Lugar, Richard G. (R) . SH-306 Kyl, Jon (R). SH-730 Bayh, Evan (D). SR-131 Arkansas Iowa Lincoln, Blanche L. (D). SD-355 Grassley, Chuck (R). SH-135 Pryor, Mark L. (D). .SD-257 Harkin, Tom (D). SH-731 California Kansas Feinstein, Dianne (D). .SH-331 Brownback, Sam (R). SH-303 Boxer, Barbara (D). .SH-112 Roberts, Pat (R). SH-109 Colorado Kentucky Allard, Wayne (R) . SD-521 McConnell, Mitch (R). SR-361A Salazar, Ken (D). .SH-702 Bunning, Jim (R). SH-316 Connecticut Louisiana Dodd, Christopher J. (D). SR-448 Landrieu, Mary L. (D). SH-724 Lieberman, Joseph I. (D-I). .SH-706 Vitter, David (R) . SH-516 Delaware Maine Biden, Joseph R., Jr. (D). .SR-201 Snowe, Olympia J. (R). SR-154 Carper, Thomas R. (D) . SH-513 Collins, Susan M. (R). SD-413 Florida Maryland Nelson, Bill (D). SH-716 Mikulski, Barbara A. (D). SH-503 Martinez, Mel (R). SR-356 Cardin, Benjamin L. (D) . SH-509 2 The United States Senate 110 th ConGress Massachusetts Oklahoma Kennedy, Edward M. (D). SR-317 Inhofe, James M. (R). .SR-453 Kerry, John F. (D). SR-304 Coburn, Tom (R). SR-172 Michigan Oregon Levin, Carl (D). SR-269 Wyden, Ron (D). .SD-230 Stabenow, Debbie (D) . SH-133 Smith, Gordon H. (R) . SR-404 Minnesota Pennsylvania Coleman, Norm (R). SH-320 Specter, Arlen (R). SH-711 Klobuchar, Amy (D). SH-302 Casey, Robert P., Jr. (D). .SR-383 Mississippi Rhode Island Cochran, Thad (R). .SD-113 Reed, Jack (D). SH-728 Lott, Trent (R). SR-487 Whitehouse, Sheldon (D). SH-502 Missouri South Carolina Bond, Christopher S. (R). SR-274 Graham, Lindsey (R). SR-290 McCaskill, Claire (D). .SH-717 DeMint, Jim (R). .SR-340 Montana South Dakota Baucus, Max (D). SH-511 Johnson, Tim (D). SH-136 Tester, Jon (D). SR-204 Thune, John (R). .SR-493 Nebraska Tennessee Hagel, Chuck (R). SR-248 Alexander, Lamar (R). .SD-455 Nelson, E. Benjamin (D) . SH-720 Corker, Bob (R). SD-185 Nevada Texas Reid, Harry (D). SH-528 Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R). .SR-284 Ensign, John (R). .SR-119 Cornyn, John (R). SH-517 New Hampshire Utah Gregg, Judd (R). SR-393 Hatch, Orrin G. (R). SH-104 Sununu, John E. (R). SR-111 Bennett, Robert F. (R) . SD-431 New Jersey Vermont Lautenberg, Frank R. (D). SH-324 Leahy, Patrick J. (D). SR-433 Menendez, Robert (D). SH-317 Sanders, Bernard (I). SD-332 New Mexico Virginia Domenici, Pete V. (R). .SH-328 Warner, John (R). SR-225 Bingaman, Jeff (D). .SH-703 Webb, Jim (D). SR-144 New York Washington Schumer, Charles E. (D). .SH-313 Murray, Patty (D) . SR-173 Clinton, Hillary Rodham (D). SR-476 Cantwell, Maria (D). SD-511 North Carolina West Virginia Dole, Elizabeth (R). .SD-555 Byrd, Robert C. (D). SH-311 Burr, Richard (R). SR-217 Rockefeller, John D., IV (D). .SH-531 North Dakota Wisconsin Conrad, Kent (D). SH-530 Kohl, Herb (D). SH-330 Dorgan, Byron L. (D). .SH-322 Feingold, Russell D. (D). .SH-506 Ohio Wyoming Voinovich, George V. (R). SH-524 Enzi, Michael B. (R). SR-379A Brown, Sherrod (D). SR-455 Barrasso, John (R). SD-307 Senators By State 3 HISTORY OF THE SENATE The two houses of Congress resulted from the first five years while meeting in New the “Great Compromise of 1787” between York and Philadelphia. Initially, senators large and small states reached at the expected that they would act primarily as Constitutional Convention. Membership of an advisory council to the president and, the House of Representatives is apportioned as a senior body, perfect legislation by according to a state’s population, and the amendment that came up from the House. number of representatives varies from state As early as 1789, however, the Senate began to state. In the Senate each state is equally originating some legislation, and public pres- represented by two senators. sure soon encouraged the body to construct a visitors gallery, which opened in 1795. In The Constitution assigns the Senate and 1800, when the federal government moved House equal responsibility for declaring from Philadelphia to the newly created war, maintaining the armed forces, assess- District of Columbia, both the House and ing taxes, borrowing money, minting Senate chambers provided public galleries. currency, regulating commerce, and mak- ing all laws necessary for the operation of By the 1830s, the Senate had attracted the the government. The Senate holds exclusive nation’s leading political figures and most authority to advise and consent on treaties gifted orators. Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and nominations. The Constitution requires that senators be at least 30 years of age, citizens of the United States, and residents of the states from which they are elected. Originally the Constitution provided that state legisla- tures would elect senators, but passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913 established direct election of senators by the people. While the House in 1789 immediately opened its doors to the public, the Senate conducted its business in secret session for Senator Daniel Webster addressing the Senate, January 1830 4 The United States Senate 110 th ConGress held in the Senate chamber, the president escaped removal from office by a single vote. A series of weak presidents followed Johnson throughout the remainder of the 19th century, allowing the Senate to become the strongest branch of the federal government. Senators argued that the execu- tive should be subordinate to the legislature, and that the president’s only role was to enforce the laws enacted by Congress. By the beginning Henry Clay addressing the Senate during the Compromise of 1850 of the 20th century, the ener- getic presidencies of Theodore John C. Calhoun, and other towering Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson challenged figures made the old Senate chamber the senatorial dominance, and the balance of chief forum for debating the great national power shifted toward the White House. Still, issues of the day. The French observer the Senate delivered Wilson a major blow Alexis de Tocqueville described the Senate at the end of his presidency by rejecting the he visited as a body of “eloquent advocates, Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I distinguished generals, wise magistrates and and created the League of Nations. statesmen of note, whose language would at times do honor to the most remarkable In the depths of the Great Depression of the parliamentary debates in Europe.” 1930s, the Senate enthusiastically responded From the 1830s to the 1850s, the Senate tackled the issues of federal authority versus states’ rights, as well as the spread of slavery into the territories. Valiant efforts to achieve compromise eventually failed, and the nation split apart in a bloody civil war.
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