House vs Senate: what US Congress members actually do

Transcript

On November 3rd, Americans voted in the midterms, choosing congressmen, senators, and governors. You've probably heard these titles in movies 100 times, but do you really know what each one does? And how are the house and senate different? Let's break it down. Look, this is the White House. It's located in Washington, D.C., and this is where the president works. Just nearby is the Capitol, where Congress meets. And Congress in turn has two chambers, the House of Representatives with 435 members, and the Senate, 100 members. Technically, they're all congressmen, but in everyday language, congressmen usually refers to members of the House. To see how this works, let's take the states of New York and Wyoming as examples. Based on its population, each state gets a certain number of congressional districts. So, New York has 26 districts, while all of Wyoming, with its small population, has just one. And the residents of each district elect one representative from any political party. Although there are dozens of political parties in the US, the main competition is between two, the Democrats and the Republicans. As a result, the winner from each district goes to the House of Representatives and there are 435 such districts across the country. So, the number of representatives is the same and they're elected every two years. But here's the interesting thing. 26 of them represent New York, and only one represents Wyoming. And that's why, to prevent large states from dominating smaller ones, a second chamber was created, the Senate. Here, the residents of each of the 50 states, regardless of population, elect two senators, who then go to the Senate. That's why there are exactly 100 of them. Senators are elected for six years, but every two years, about a third of the seats are up for election. To pass a federal law, approval from both chambers of Congress is usually needed, and then the president's signature. But then, who are the governors? They're the heads of their states. They aren't part of Congress, and don't report directly to the president. And how the seats in Congress are divided between Democrats and Republicans decides the balance of power in the US.

Transcribed automatically from the video, so small errors are possible.