What are some of the differences between the House and the Senate?

7 November 2018, 07:38 | Updated: 28 October 2019, 15:53

The Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the Midterms, but the Republicans retained the Senate. Here's the difference between them.

The US has two different houses: a lower house, called the House of Representatives and an upper house, called the Senate. For bills to become law, they need to be passed through both houses.

And with the Democrats controlling one and the Republicans controlling the other, what will that mean for Donald Trump?

What is the House of Representatives?

There are 435 members of the House of Representatives - these are the closest equivalents to UK MPs.

They are there to represent their local population in Congress and are the person that you should go to if you have a problem with how the country is being run.

These are re-elected every two years - in all US elections and midterms.

What is the Senate?

There are 100 Senators in the US - two for every state.

While the House of Representatives work for the local population, Senators are there to represent the interests of the state.

Senators are re-elected every six years - meaning around a third of them are elected at each midterm and election.

What happens when different parties control the houses?

With the Democrats controlling the House of Representatives and the Republicans controlling the Senate, it will be very difficult to pass any laws.

This happened in the final two years of Barack Obama's Presidency, when he struggled to make any changes as the Republicans voted down his bills.

Without controlling one of the houses, Donald Trump is now forced to rely on a Democrat-controlled house to pass his bills and with the current animosity between the two parties, that seems unlikely.

With the 2020 election on the horizon, that is likely to prove extremely difficult, meaning he will struggle to make any significant changes over the next two years.

Gaining the House also means the Democrats gain control of several committees which they could use to launch investigations against Trump, including subpoenaing tax records he refused to release during the 2016 election. Potentially it could also include an attempt to impeach the President.

Any member of the House can introduce a bill at any time during a session. Once introduced, the Speaker of the House assigns the bill to a committee (for example, the Science and Technology committee may review a bill on climate change). The committee closely examines facts and existing laws and may conduct hearings of experts and other parties who have an interest in the bill. The committee may also amend (or change) the bill, and then votes to either reject the bill or send it to the full House.

Once a bill is sent to the full House, it gets added to the agenda (or House Calendar) and gets a designated time allowance for debate. Generally, the supporters and opponents of a bill control debate time (often this is the Chairman and Ranking member of the bill's primary committee), but any representative may yield time to other representatives who wish to speak about the bill. The bill may be amended further, and after the conclusion of time for debate and all amendments have been addressed, the bill is voted upon by the full House — unless a representative rules to send it back to committee.

If the bill passes the in the House, it moves on to the Senate. Unlike debates in the House, Senate debates do not have a time constraint, but senators may only speak if called upon by the Presiding Officer. The presiding officer has little control over the debate, however, because he or she is required to recognize the first senator who rises, unless either the Majority or Minority Leader wishes to speak. The two leaders trump other senators.

There aren't any restrictions on what senators can speak about; they don't even have to stay on the topic of the bill being debated. But senators are prohibited from making more than two speeches on a bill on the same legislative day.

A filibuster is a tactic used to defeat bills in the Senate by prolonging debate indefinitely. A filibuster may include very long speeches, a lengthy series of proposed amendments, or a few other stalling tactics. The Senate may end a filibuster by invoking cloture, which usually requires approval by three-fifths of the Senate. Cloture is therefore invoked rarely, because to get that many senators on board requires bipartisan support. Note there is no equivalent to the filibuster in the House.

When debate concludes, the bill is put to a vote. If a senate vote is tied, the Vice President of the United States, if present, is entitled to vote. (If the vice president is not present, the motion fails.)

Once the bill passes both houses of Congress, it goes to the president to sign.