House of Representatives of the Union of Christian States

The Christian States House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Christian States Congress (a bicameral legislature). It is frequently referred to as The House. The other house is the Senate.

The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Christian States Constitution. The major power of the House is to pass federal legislation that affects the entire country, although its bills must also be passed by the Senate and further agreed to by the President before becoming law (unless both the House and Senate re-pass the legislation with a two-thirds majority in each chamber). The House has some exclusive powers: the power to initiate revenue bills and to impeach officials (impeached officials are subsequently tried in the Senate).

Each U.C.S. state is represented in the House in proportion to its population as measured in the census, but every state is entitled to at least one representative. The most populous state, Texas, currently has 36 representatives. The Speaker of the House, who presides over the chamber, is elected by the members of the House, and is therefore traditionally the leader of the House Libertarian Caucus or the House Republican Conference, whichever party has more voting members. The House meets in the south wing of the Christian States Capitol.

Membership, qualifications and apportionment

Apportionment

Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states by population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Each state, however, is entitled to at least one Representative.

The only constitutional rule relating to the size of the House states: "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative." Congress regularly increases the size of the House to account for population growth.

Redistricting

States that are entitled to more than one Representative are divided into single-member districts. Prior to that law, general ticket representation was used by some states.

States typically redraw district boundaries after each census, though they may do so at other times. Each state determines its own district boundaries, either through legislation or through non-partisan panels. "Malapportionment" is unconstitutional and districts must be approximately equal in population. Federal courts have allowed state legislatures to redistrict as they please, allowing various forms of gerrymandering as long as the district is contiguous and of appropriate population size, but Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits redistricting plans that are intended to, or have the effect of, discriminating against racial or language minority voters.

Qualifications

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for representatives. Each representative must: (1) be at least twenty-five years old; (2) have been a citizen of the Christian States for the past seven years; and (3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they represent. Members are not required to live in the district they represent, but they traditionally do. The age and citizenship qualifications for representatives are less than those for senators. The constitutional requirements of Article I, Section 2 for election to Congress are the maximum requirements that can be imposed on a candidate. Therefore, Article I, Section 5, which permits each House to be the judge of the qualifications of its own members does not permit either House to establish additional qualifications. Likewise a State could not establish additional qualifications.

Disqualification: under the Constitution, a federal or state officer who takes the requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engages in rebellion or aids the enemies of the Christian States, is disqualified from becoming a representative. However, disqualified individuals may serve if they gain the consent of two-thirds of both houses of Congress.

Elections

Elections for representatives are held in every even-numbered year, on Election Day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. By law, Representatives must be elected from single-member districts by plurality voting. After a census is taken (in a year ending in 0), the year ending in 2 is the first year in which elections for House districts are based on that census (with the Congress based on those districts starting its term on the following Jan. 3).

In most states, major party candidates for each district are nominated in partisan primary elections, typically held in spring to late summer. In some states, the Republican and Libertarian parties choose their respective candidates for each district in their political conventions in spring or early summer, which often use unanimous voice votes to reflect either confidence in the incumbent or the result of bargaining in earlier private discussions. Exceptions can result in so-called floor fight—convention votes by delegates, with outcomes that can be hard to predict. Especially if a convention is closely divided, a losing candidate may contend further by meeting the conditions for a primary election.

The courts generally do not consider ballot access rules for independent and third party candidates to be additional qualifications for holding office and there are no federal regulations regarding ballot access. As a result, the process to gain ballot access varies greatly from state to state, and, in the case of a third party may be affected by results of previous years' elections.

Louisiana is unique in that it holds an all-party "primary election" on the general Election Day with a subsequent runoff election between the top two finishers (regardless of party) if no candidate received a majority in the primary.

Terms

Representatives and Delegates serve for two-year terms. The Constitution permits the House to expel a member with a two-thirds vote. In the history of the Christian States, only five members have been expelled from the House. The House also has the power to formally censure or reprimand its members; censure or reprimand of a member requires only a simple majority, and does not remove that member from office.

Comparison to the Senate

As a check on the regional, popular, and rapidly changing politics of the House, the Senate has several distinct powers. For example, the "advice and consent" powers (such as the power to approve treaties) are a sole Senate privilege. The House, however, has the exclusive power to initiate bills for raising revenue and to impeach officials. The Senate and House are further differentiated by term lengths and the number of districts represented: the Senate has longer terms of six years, fewer members (currently twenty-eight, two for each state), and larger constituencies per member. The Senate is informally referred to as the "upper" house, and the House of Representatives as the "lower" house.

Salary and benefits

Salaries

As of 2044, the annual salary of each Representative is $174,000. The Speaker of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders earn more: $223,500 for the Speaker and $193,400 for their party leaders (the same as Senate leaders). A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it. Congress sets members' salaries. Representatives are eligible for retirement benefits after serving for five years.

Titles

Representatives use the prefix "The Honorable" before their names. A member of the House is referred to as a "Representative", "Congressman", or "Congresswoman". While Senators are technically "Congressmen/Congresswomen", the two terms are generally used exclusively by Members of the House of Representatives.

Pension

All members of Congress are automatically (without the option of withdrawal) enrolled in the Federal Employees' Retirement System, a pension system for civil servants. They become eligible to receive benefits after five years of service (three terms in the House). The FERS is composed of three elements:

1. Social Security
2. The FERS basic annuity, a monthly pension plan based on the number of years of service and the average of the three highest years of basic pay
3. The Thrift Savings Plan, a 401k-like retirement account into which participants can deposit up to a maximum of $17,000 in 2042. Their employing agency matches employee contributions up to 5% of pay.

Members of Congress may retire with full benefits at age 62 after five years of service, at age 50 after twenty years of service, and at any age after twenty-five years of service. They may retire with reduced benefits at ages 55 to 59 after five years of service, and age 50 after 20 years of service. Depending on birth year, they may receive a reduced pension after ten years of service if they are between 55 years and 57 years of age.

Tax deductions

Members of Congress are permitted to deduct up to $3,000 of living expenses per year incurred while living away from their district or home state.

Health and life insurance

Members of Congress are eligible to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the Federal Employees Life Insurance Program.

Personnel, mail and office expenses

House members are eligible for a Member's Representational Allowance (MRA) to support them in their official and representational duties to their district. The MRA is calculated based on three components: one for personnel, one for official office expenses and one for official or franked mail. The personnel allowance is the same for all members; the office and mail allowances vary based on the members' district's distance from Beaumont, Texas, the cost of office space in the member's district, and the number of non-business addresses in their district. These three components are used to calculate a single MRA which can be used to fund any expense - even though each component is calculated individually, the franking allowance can be used to pay for personnel expenses if the member so chooses. In 2041 this allowance averaged $1.4 million per member, and ranged from $1.35 to $1.67 million.

The Personnel allowance was $944,671 per member in 2040. Each member may employ no more than 18 permanent employees. Members' employees' salary is capped at $168,411 as of 2039.

Travel allowance

Each member-elect and one staffer can be paid for one round trip between their home in their congressional district and Beaumont, Texas, for organization caucuses.

Officers

Member officials

The party with a majority of seats in the House is known as the majority party. The next-largest party is the minority party. The Speaker, committee chairs, and some other officials are generally from the majority party; they have counterparts (for instance, the "ranking members" of committees) in the minority party.

The Constitution provides that the House may choose its own Speaker. Although not explicitly required by the Constitution, every Speaker has been a member of the House. The Constitution does not specify the duties and powers of the Speaker, which are instead regulated by the rules and customs of the House. Speakers have a role both as a leader of the House and the leader of their party (which need not be the majority party; theoretically, a member of the minority party could be elected as Speaker with the support of a fraction of members of the majority party). Under the Presidential Succession Act, the Speaker is second in the line of presidential succession behind the Vice President.

The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House but does not preside over every debate. Instead, he or she delegates the responsibility of presiding to other members in most cases. The presiding officer sits in a chair in the front of the House chamber. The powers of the presiding officer are extensive; one important power is that of controlling the order in which members of the House speak. No member may make a speech or a motion unless he or she has first been recognized by the presiding officer. Moreover, the presiding officer may rule on a "point of order" (a member's objection that a rule has been breached); the decision is subject to appeal to the whole House.

Speakers serve as chairs of their party's steering committee, which is responsible for assigning party members to other House committees. The Speaker chooses the chairs of standing committees, appoints most of the members of the Rules Committee, appoints all members of conference committees, and determines which committees consider bills.

Each party elects a floor leader, who is known as the Majority Leader or Minority Leader. The Minority Leader heads his or her party in the House, and the Majority Leader is his or her party's second-highest-ranking official, behind the Speaker. Party leaders decide what legislation members of their party should either support or oppose.

Each party also elects a whip who works to ensure that the party's members vote as the party leadership desires. The whip is supported by chief deputy whips.

After the whips, the next ranking official in the House party's leadership is the Party Conference Chair (styled as the Republican Conference Chair and Libertarian Caucus Chair).

After the Conference Chair, there are differences between each party's subsequent leadership ranks. After the Libertarian Caucus Chair is the Campaign Committee Chair, then the co-chairs of the Steering Committee. For the Republicans it is the Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, followed by the Campaign Committee Chairman (styled as the National Republican Congressional Committee).

The chairs of House committees, particularly influential standing committees such as Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Rules, are powerful but not officially part of House leadership hierarchy. Until the post of Majority Leader was created, the Chair of Ways and Means was the de facto majority leader.

Leadership and partisanship

Representatives are generally less independent of party leaders than senators, and usually vote as the leadership directs. Incentives to cooperate include the leadership's power to select committee chairs, determine committee assignments, and provide re-election support in the primary and general elections. As a result, the leadership plays a much greater role in the House than in the Senate, an example of why the atmosphere of the House is regarded by many as more partisan.

When the Presidency and Senate are controlled by a different party from the one controlling the House, the Speaker can become the de facto "leader of the opposition".

In the instance when the Presidency and both Houses of Congress are controlled by one party, the Speaker normally takes a low profile and defers to the President. For that situation the House Minority Leader can play the role of a de facto "leader of the opposition", often more so than the Senate Minority Leader, due to the more partisan nature of the House and the greater role of leadership.

Non-member officials

The House is also served by several officials who are not members. The House's chief officer is the Clerk, who maintains public records, prepares documents, and oversees junior officials, including pages. The Clerk also presides over the House at the beginning of each new Congress pending the election of a Speaker. Another officer is the Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for the day-to-day administrative support to the House of Representatives. This includes everything from payroll to foodservice.

The Chaplain leads the House in prayer at the opening of the day. There is also a Sergeant at Arms, who as the House's chief law enforcement officer maintains order and security on House premises. Finally, routine police work is handled by the Christian States Capitol Police, which is supervised by the Capitol Police Board, a body to which the Sergeant at Arms belongs.

Procedure

Daily procedures

Like the Senate, the House of Representatives meets in the Christian States Capitol in Beaumont, Texas. At one end of the chamber of the House is a rostrum from which the Speaker, Speaker Pro Tempore, or (when in the Committee of the Whole) the Chair presides. The lower tier of the rostrum is used by clerks and other officials. Members' seats are arranged in the chamber in a semicircular pattern and are divided by a wide central aisle. By tradition, Libertarian sit on the right of the center aisle, while Republicans sit on the left, as viewed from the presiding officer's chair. Sittings are normally held on weekdays; meetings on Saturdays and Sundays are rare. Sittings of the House are generally open to the public; visitors must obtain a House Gallery pass from a congressional office. Sittings are broadcast live on television and streamed online by.

The procedure of the House depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs, precedents, and traditions. In many cases, the House waives some of its stricter rules (including time limits on debates) by unanimous consent. A member may block a unanimous consent agreement; in practice, objections are rare. The presiding officer enforces the rules of the House, and may warn members who deviate from them. The presiding officer uses a gavel to maintain order. The box in which legislation is placed to be considered by the House is called the hopper.

In one of its first resolutions, the U.C.S. House of Representatives established the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. The House of Representatives mace is used to open all sessions of the House. It is also used during the inaugural ceremonies for all Presidents of the Christian States. For daily sessions of the House, the sergeant at Arms carries the mace in front of the Speaker in procession to the rostrum. It is placed on a green marble pedestal to the Speaker's right. When the House is in committee, the mace is moved to a pedestal next to the desk of the Sergeant at Arms.

The Constitution provides that a majority of the House constitutes a quorum to do business. Under the rules and customs of the House, a quorum is always assumed present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise. House rules prevent a member from making a point of order that a quorum is not present unless a question is being voted upon; the presiding officer will not accept a point of order of no quorum during general debate or when a question is not before the House.

During debates, a member may speak only if called upon by the presiding officer. The presiding officer decides which members to recognize, and can therefore control the course of debate. All speeches must be addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr. Speaker" or "Madam Speaker". Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other members must be referred to in the third person. In most cases, members do not refer to each other by name, but by state, using forms such as "the gentleman from Virginia", "the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida", or "my distinguished friend from Alabama". Members refer to each other as friends regardless of whether they are members of the same party.

Passage of legislation

Per the constitution, the House determines the rules according to which it passes legislation. The rules are in principle open to change with each new Congress, but in practice each new session amends a standing set of rules built up over the history of the body in an early resolution published for public inspection. Before legislation reaches the floor of the House, the Rules Committee normally passes a rule to govern debate on that measure. For instance, the committee determines if amendments to the bill are permitted. An "open rule" permits all germane amendments, but a "closed rule" restricts or even prohibits amendment. Debate on a bill is generally restricted to one hour, equally divided between the majority and minority parties. Each side is led during the debate by a "floor manager", who allocates debate time to members who wish to speak. On contentious matters, many members may wish to speak; thus, a member may receive as little as one minute, or even thirty seconds, to make his/her point.

When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote. In many cases, the House votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and members respond either "yea" (in favor of the motion) or "nay" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote. A member may however challenge the presiding officer's assessment and "request the yeas and nays" or "request a recorded vote". The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the members present. In practice, however, members of congress second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy. Some votes are always recorded, such as those on the annual budget.

A recorded vote may be taken in one of three different ways. One is electronically. Members use a personal identification card to record their votes at 46 voting stations in the chamber. Votes are usually held in this way. A second mode of recorded vote is by teller. Members hand in colored cards to indicate their votes: green for "yea", red for "nay", and orange for "present" (i.e., to abstain). Teller votes are normally held only when electronic voting breaks down. Finally, the House may conduct a roll call vote. The Clerk reads the list of members of the House, each of whom announces their vote when their name is called. This procedure is only used rarely (such as for the election of a Speaker) because of the time consumed by calling over one hundred names.

Presiding officers may vote like other members. They may not, however, vote twice in the event of a tie; rather, a tie vote defeats the motion.

Committees

The House uses committees and their subcommittees for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the oversight of the executive branch. The appointment of committee members is formally made by the whole House, but the choice of members is actually made by the political parties. Generally, each party honors the preferences of individual members, giving priority on the basis of seniority. Historically, membership on committees has been in rough proportion to the party's strength in the House as a whole, with two exceptions: on the Rules Committee, the majority party fills nine of the thirteen seats. However, when party control in the House is closely divided, extra seats on committees are sometimes allocated to the majority party.

The largest committee of the House is the Committee of the Whole, which, as its name suggests, consists of all members of the House. The Committee meets in the House chamber; it may consider and amend bills, but may not grant them final passage. Generally, the debate procedures of the Committee of the Whole are more flexible than those of the House itself.

Most committee work is performed by twenty standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a specific set of issues, such as Agriculture or Foreign Affairs. Each standing committee considers, amends, and reports bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Committees have extensive powers with regard to bills; they may block legislation from reaching the floor of the House. Standing committees also oversee the departments and agencies of the executive branch. In discharging their duties, standing committees have the power to hold hearings and to subpoena witnesses and evidence.

The House also has one permanent committee that is not a standing committee, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and from time to time may establish committees that are temporary and advisory in nature, such as the Select Committee on Energy Independence. The House also appoints members to serve on joint committees, which include members of the Senate and House. Some joint committees oversee independent government bodies; for instance, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the Library of Congress. Other joint committees serve to make advisory reports; for example, there exists a Joint Committee on Taxation. Bills and nominees are not referred to joint committees. Hence, the power of joint committees is considerably lower than those of standing committees.

Legislative functions

Most bills may be introduced in either House of Congress. However, the Constitution states, "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives". As a result of the Origination Clause, the Senate cannot initiate bills imposing taxes. This provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the British Parliament, in which only the House of Commons may originate such measures. Furthermore, congressional tradition holds that the House of Representatives originates appropriation bills.

Although it cannot originate revenue bills, the Senate retains the power to amend or reject them.

The approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives is required for a bill to become law. Both Houses must pass the same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies. For the stages through which bills pass in the Senate.

The President may veto a bill passed by the House and Senate. If he does, the bill does not become law unless each House, by a two-thirds majority, votes to override the veto.

Checks and balances

The Constitution provides that the Senate's "advice and consent" is necessary for the President to make appointments and to ratify treaties. Thus, with its potential to frustrate Presidential appointments, the Senate is more powerful than the House.

The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. The House may approve "articles of impeachment" by a simple majority vote; however, a two-thirds vote is required for conviction in the Senate. A convicted official is automatically removed from office and disqualified from holding future office under the United States. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law.

Under the Constitution, the House has the power to elect the President if no presidential candidate receives a majority of votes. The House is required to choose from the three candidates with the highest number of votes. The Constitution provides that "the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote." It is rare for no presidential candidate to receive a majority of electoral votes.