Hello, and welcome back to the Civic Flame! I am Professor Amber and today weÕll be continuing our discussion of AmericaÕs least favorite branch of government. In the current race to the bottom, that means the United States Congress (affectionately known as COTUS or C-O-T-U-S, for Congress of the United States). Last week we talked about the House of Representatives and some of their important features. Next week weÕll talk a little about election. This week? WeÕre going over Article 1, Section 3 of the US Constitution which establishes the United States Senate. Ready to learn about the legislators who think theyÕre the big kids on the playground? Grab a seat around the fire and letÕs go! (insert transition music) At the time IÕm writing and recording this, the US government is still in a shutdown. ItÕs not my first, and likely wonÕt be my last. But what does that mean, and how does that happen? Well, in order to pass legislation the House and the Senate have to both pass the legislation, an it has to be identical (then it goes to the presidentÕs desk for a signature). In this case, the legislation was the US budget. And the Senate refused to compromise because Senate Democrats felt that Republicans were cutting too much from Medicare and Medicaid, and Republicans felt that Democrats were asking too much. There are lots of internet speculations going around that this also has to do with the House of Representatives continuing to stonewall to release of the Epstein files which are protecting many very wealthy and well connected around the world who are actually guilty of raping children. Is that the case? I donÕt know, but itÕs certainly not not the case. But, letÕs assume the government is function (that might be a high bar. LetÕs just assume itÕs open for business). What does the Seante do? Well, fittingly for the times, the first clause in article 1 section 3 starts with a clause that has been changed by the 17 Amendment. ÒThe Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.Ó See how originally the Senate was chosen by the state legislature? ThatÕs because it was part of the balance of power between popular sovereignty (with the house being closest to the people), statesÕ rights (the Senate represents whole states and the state government in the legislature), and federal power (the president). But in the early 1900s, this was starting to change at the state level and eventually became a Constitutional Amendment which required all of the members of the Seante to be elected. But the other parts of the clause are also important: not only are there are two senators from every state and they serve terms of six years. The two Senators was supposed to be a compromise. In the House everything is set out by population, so bigger population, more votes. The Senate was meant to stand as a guarantee that less populous states wouldnÕt be totally overruled by larger ones. But with the way populations have moved over time, the Senate is very unevenly divided. Now, the goal was always some amount of sustainable inequality. It remains to be seen if demographic and migration trends will even out across rural and urban states bringing them more to equivalent population growth, but if it doesnÕt, this is just going to lead to some more antagonisms in our political system. Now that we have that all knotted up, what about that whole six year term thing? IÕm glad you asked. Notice how this is different from the House that we talked about last week. Each member of the House is up for reelection every 2 years. So, if we wanted to change the whole House of Representatives, we could do it every election. The Senate, however, is staggered so that 2/3 of the Senate is the same at any given time. This means that if a senator from your state runs for election in 2020, they wonÕt run again until 2026. Your other senator might run in 2022, which means theyÕll run again in 2028. And since you only have 2 senators, in 2024 there wonÕt be any Senate candidate on your ballot. So, each one serves 6 years, but the elections are staggered for members. Aside from getting to rack up years served with less effort than the house, what else do these guys do? Work on committees a lot of the time. Remember that while you have two different bodies with the House (and itÕs 435 members who each represent small districts) and the Senate (with itÕs 100 members who represent entire states), when they pass legislation before sending to get the presidentÕs signature, it has to be identical. So, thereÕs a lot of wrangling an politicking going on. Think about how the priorities change from the House to the Senate. In the House, youÕre representing one district in one part of the state. You have about 700, 000 constitutions to worry about, and you might have more in common with a Rep in another state than you do with your own Senator. As a Senator, you represent the whole state. This means youÕre playing for a bigger field than most Reps (although there are some states that only have 1 rep). So, what youÕre representing and whose interests youÕre going to respond to are a little different in the Senate. But just like the House has powers the Senate doesnÕt have (all bills with money need to start in the House and they get the sole power of impeachment, and a LOT of the investigative powers), the Senate has some powers the House doesnÕt. And theyÕre important. The Senate gives advice and consent on people like Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet (thatÕs your Secretary of Defense, State, etc), and very very importantly, theyÕre supposed to and (with notable exception of Merrick Garland during the Obama Admin) weigh in on the presidentÕs choice of Supreme Court justice. The president nominates people in these positions, usually they go talk to the committee for discussion, then they get released into the wild of the whole Senate who basically asks them a bunch of tough or weird questions (if they donÕt like them) and a bunch of softballs (if they do like them). ItÕs not a perfect system, but thatÕs government for you. Much like with the House, we have a qualifications clause that tell us what these folks need in order to be in the Senate. Remember, youÕve got to be the ripe old age of 25 in the House. The Senate is a bit different. ÒNo 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.Ó So, youÕve got to be a little older to make it into the Senate, and nine years a citizen of the US (as opposed to seven years for the House), and youÕve got to live in your state. This has caused some political question marks with people like RFK Sr and Hillary Clinton who both (at different points) were Senators from New York state, and both accused of being carpetbaggers (or folks who move for opportunistic political an economic reasons). Beyond these qualification, you canÕt add anything. So much like the House, no term limits unless by Constitutional amendment. You might be thinking, but Professor Amber, what about the cost of campaigns? I assure you the Constitution says nothing about big shiny bags of money. The First Amendment has been interpreted, however, to say that money in this case is a form of free speech (which raises questions about corporations that donate to both political parties or candidates, but the Supreme Court says we donÕt need to worry about it, so thatÕs probably fine.) Also weird, the Vice President is technically the president of the Senate, but that function is usually reserved to the president pro-temp who is chosen by the Senate. There have been a few times when the VP has acted as president of the Senate to break a tie vote, in fact, all three recent vice presidents (Vance, Harris, and Pence) cast some kind of tie breaking vote in the Senate. Which shouldnÕt be surprised given how very divided our government is that more of these votes are coming down to the wire. The other power that is reserved to the Senate is the power to try impeachments. Remember that the House has the sole power of impeachment, even the president cannot pardon someone in cases of impeachment. But the Senate gets to try the impeachment trial and determine whether to remove someone from office (which I donÕt think theyÕve ever done). ÒJudgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.Ó (transition music) Okay, weÕve gone into the deep dives that set up the Senate and the House. Next week, weÕre going to aim a little higher and do articles 4-7 all at once! If it looks like thatÕs getting too long, then weÕll split it up. Maybe next week (or this week depending on when you listen!), the government shutdown will be over. I guess weÕll see what the future holds. In the meantime, go to senate.gov and figure out who your senators are. Send them a letter or email telling them theyÕre doing a good job (if they are) or directing them towards a better policy (if theyÕre not). Follow me at Dr. Fun Sponge on BlueSky, Instagram, YouTube (where I have posted nothing so far), and TikTok (though my patience with that platform might run out pretty soon). Until next time, keep the civic flame burning bright. And thanks for joining the good fight. (outro) The Civic Flame is a Dr. Fun Sponge Media production with creator Amber Vayo and Sound Producer Matthew Munyon. Thanks for listening!