According to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. presidential elections are held every four years and congressional elections are held every two years. One of the congressional elections is held simultaneously with the presidential election, and the other is held between two presidential elections. Congressional elections held between two presidential elections are often called "midterm elections." Midterm elections are mostly held on the first Tuesday in November.

According to the 1787 Constitution of the United States, Congress is the highest legislative body in the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Members of both chambers are directly elected by voters in each state. There are 2 senators from each state, 100 from the 50 states. They serve a 6-year term and 1/3 are re-elected every two years. Representatives are elected in proportion to the population of each state. About 500,000 people elect one person, 435 of them, for a two-year term. After expiration, they are all re-elected. Congress is held every two years.

The U.S. Constitution stipulates that senatorial candidates must be over 30 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for 9 years, and must be a resident of the state in which they are elected; representatives of the House of Representatives must be over 25 years old, and have been a U.S. citizen for 9 years. 7 years or more and a resident of the electing state. Members of both houses of Congress may be re-elected and serve full-time positions and may not hold concurrent government positions.

The mid-term elections will generally involve voting on the following issues: voting for 435 seats in the House of Representatives; re-election of one-third of the seats in the Senate; elections for some governors; legislative and executive bodies held by local states and counties election.

In this year’s U.S. midterm elections, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 36 of the 100 seats in the Senate, as well as 36 states and three U.S. overseas territory chief executive seats will be elected.

Midterm elections are sometimes considered a referendum on the performance of the sitting president and/or the governing party, and the results are usually unfavorable to the president's party.

It is generally believed that the 2014 U.S. midterm elections will not only affect the basic pattern of American politics in the next two years, but will also have an important impact on the 2016 presidential election. Currently, the Republican Party of the United States controls the House of Representatives. The key is who can become the majority party in the Senate.

U.S. media polls show that the Democratic Party has an advantage in some areas where the election is fierce, but the overall data is tilted towards the Democratic Party, which believes that the Democratic Party can regain control of the Senate.

Of the 36 Senate seats elected in this midterm election, 21 are currently controlled by the Democratic Party and 15 are controlled by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party, which currently holds 45 seats in the Senate, needs to add 6 more seats to take away the Democratic Party's control of the Senate. But analysts predict that neither party is likely to gain an absolute upper hand this year.

Functions of the U.S. Congress

Congress is the highest federal legislative branch of the United States. According to the U.S. Constitution, the United States is a federal country with "separation of powers" of legislation, judiciary, and executive. Congress exercises legislative power, the government headed by the president exercises executive power, and the courts exercise judicial power.

According to Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Congress has the following powers: to enact laws, declare war, raise and provide public funds and supervise their use, report and prosecute federal support, approve the appointment of the president, Ratifies treaties negotiated by the executive branch and conducts oversight and investigations.

If the Congress passes legislation, approves the government's annual fiscal budget and allocates funds, approves its important domestic and foreign policies such as taxation, trade, conscription, and finance, and approves treaties and agreements concluded by the government and the president with foreign governments and international institutions. , determine war and peace. In addition to legislation, the U.S. Congress holds hearings to report on legislative progress, oversees the executive branch, and serves as a spokesman for the American people and the U.S. government.

The U.S. Congress is divided into two institutions: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The status of the two houses is equal, but their respective powers and obligations are different. In order to balance the interests of the large and small states in the United States, each state has an equal voice in the Senate, and in the House of Representatives, the number of state representatives is determined according to the proportion of each state's population.

The legislative process of the U.S. Congress

According to the rules of procedure of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the U.S. Congress, a bill must go through the following legislative procedures from the time it is proposed to the time it finally becomes law: the bill is proposed and the committee deliberates , passed, reviewed and approved by the whole house, the two houses unified the text, and signed by the president.

The procedure for submitting a motion is simple. At any time during a regular session of Congress, after the sponsoring member fills in the main content of the bill title in a fixed format and signs it, the House of Representatives puts the bill into the "bill box", which completes the bill submission process; the senator submits the bill to the clerk of the Senate, or in person. At the House of Representatives meeting, with the permission of the chairperson of the meeting, the title of the bill and the content of the bill are stated before the bill submission procedure is completed. Members can sign and co-sign on bills drafted by others.

After the bill is submitted to the committee, it will enter a complex, long and changeable review process. The member who proposes the proposal needs to win the support of as many members as possible; relevant members may express support or opposition to the motion; and propose amendments. Government departments, interest groups, lobbying groups, civil society, foreign government representatives, etc. will also intervene one after another to impose Influence. The committee review process is a process in which various forces reach consensus based on competition and compromise.

After the committee accepts the bill, it will usually be forwarded to the competent subcommittee, which will initiate the review process. The subcommittee first held a legislative hearing, attended by relevant experts and scholars, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and government officials.

The subcommittee summarizes the opinions and suggestions of all parties, and then reviews the bill word by word, sentence by sentence, and paragraph by paragraph. Members who have different opinions on the relevant provisions or words can propose amendments or substitutions. If passed by a vote, they will be absorbed. After the bill is passed by the subcommittee, it will be sent to the committee for review. The deliberation, debate, and voting procedures of the committee are similar to those of the subcommittee. After being voted and approved by the committee, the bill will be sent to the full house meeting for debate and voting.

The review process of the bill is mainly completed in the committee. Judging from the content of the bill, the text passed by the committee balances the opinions of supporters and opponents to a large extent. The content of the bill will be relatively balanced. When it is submitted to the full house meeting for review, unless the opposition and supporters are very close in strength and the struggle is very sharp, major changes will generally not be made.

After a bill is passed by the committee, it is sent to the plenary session for debate and vote. There are major differences in the deliberation procedures between the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives emphasizes the principle of "the minority obeys the majority, and the majority has the final say." Usually, the will of the majority party is imposed on the minority party; the Senate highlights the principle of "negotiation, compromise, and cooperation" between the majority party and the minority party. Unless the majority party controls 60 seats The legislative majority must cooperate with the minority party to advance the legislative process.

Due to the bicameral system of the U.S. Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate have different views, positions, and starting points on the congressional legislative agenda. Bills passed by the two houses often have inconsistent text forms and contents. Before the relevant bill is submitted to the President for signature into law, the two houses must negotiate to unify the text of the bill. Therefore, unifying the texts of the two houses is an essential procedure.

In actual operation, the House of Representatives and the Senate unify the text in the following ways: submit a bill passed by one house to the other house for voting without modification; abandon the text of a bill passed by one house and replace it with another The text of the bill proposed by the two houses serves as the unified text of the two houses; the two houses pass their respective versions of the text, and then the leaders of the two houses appoint members to form a joint meeting of the two houses to work on the "unified text" and form a report, which is submitted to the two houses for approval. .

The President receives a bill or joint resolution passed by both houses of Congress. If signed, the bill or joint resolution becomes national law. The president can also veto it and return it to the House or Senate together with the reasons for the veto, requesting reconsideration. The two chambers can accept the president's opinions and revise the bill or joint resolution before sending it to the president for signature. Both houses can also override a presidential veto by a two-thirds majority vote, making it automatically become law. If the President neither signs nor vetoes within 10 days (except Sundays) and Congress is still in regular session, the bill or joint resolution will automatically become law; if Congress has adjourned, the bill or joint resolution will become law. Considered a veto, such veto neither requires justification nor can be overridden.

(