Rusch, Elizabeth (2020). You call this democracy?: how to fix our government and deliver power to the people. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-358-17692-3. OCLC 1124772479. MacNeil, Neil and Richard A. Baker. The American Senate: An Insider's History. Oxford University Press, 2013. 455 pp.

Baker, Richard A. "Traditions of the United States Senate" (PDF). United States Senate. p.4. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 11, 2018 . Retrieved February 16, 2018.

Reviews

Stewart, Charles; Reynolds, Mark (January 1, 1990). "Television Markets and U.S. Senate Elections". Legislative Studies Quarterly. 15 (4): 495–523. doi: 10.2307/439894. JSTOR 439894. Ritchie, Congress, p. 44. Zelizer, On Capitol Hill describes this process; one of the reforms is that seniority within the majority party can now be bypassed, so that chairs do run the risk of being deposed by their colleagues. See in particular p. 17, for the unreformed Congress, and pp.188–9, for the Stevenson reforms of 1977. By tradition, seniority is a factor in the selection of physical offices and in party caucuses' assignment of committees. When senators have been in office for the same length of time, a number of tiebreakers are used, including comparing their former government service and then their respective state population. [38] Senate reform: Lazing on a Senate afternoon". The Economist. Archived from the original on October 14, 2010 . Retrieved October 4, 2010. Elections to the Senate are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years, Election Day, and occur simultaneously with elections for the House of Representatives. [22] Senators are elected by their state as a whole. The Elections Clause of the United States Constitution grants each state (and Congress, if it so desires to implement a uniform law) the power to legislate a method by which senators are elected. Ballot access rules for independent and minor party candidates also vary from state to state.

Amar, Vik D. (January 1, 1988). "The Senate and the Constitution". The Yale Law Journal. 97 (6): 1111–1130. doi: 10.2307/796343. JSTOR 796343. S2CID 53702587.Senate Chamber Desks – Desk Occupants". United States Senate. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022 . Retrieved January 21, 2022. The Senate also has several committees that are not considered standing committees. Such bodies are generally known as select or special committees; examples include the Select Committee on Ethics and the Special Committee on Aging. Legislation is referred to some of these committees, although the bulk of legislative work is performed by the standing committees. Committees may be established on an ad hoc basis for specific purposes; for instance, the Senate Watergate Committee was a special committee created to investigate the Watergate scandal. Such temporary committees cease to exist after fulfilling their tasks. Maine Independent Angus King To Caucus With Senate Democrats". Politico. November 14, 2012. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020 . Retrieved November 28, 2020. Angus King of Maine, who cruised to victory last week running as an independent, said Wednesday that he will caucus with Senate Democrats. [...] The Senate's other independent, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, also caucuses with the Democrats. The Senate maintains a Senate Calendar and an Executive Calendar. [58] The former identifies bills and resolutions awaiting Senate floor actions. The latter identifies executive resolutions, treaties, and nominations reported out by Senate committee(s) and awaiting Senate floor action. Both are updated each day the Senate is in session. McFarland, Ernest W. The Ernest W. McFarland Papers: The United States Senate Years, 1940–1952. Prescott, Ariz.: Sharlot Hall Museum, 1995 (Democratic majority leader 1950–52)

In 45 states, a primary election is held first for the Republican and Democratic parties (and a select few third parties, depending on the state) with the general election following a few months later. In most of these states, the nominee may receive only a plurality, while in some states, a runoff is required if no majority was achieved. In the general election, the winner is the candidate who receives a plurality of the popular vote. The powers of the Senate concerning nominations are, however, subject to some constraints. For instance, the Constitution provides that the president may make an appointment during a congressional recess without the Senate's advice and consent. The recess appointment remains valid only temporarily; the office becomes vacant again at the end of the next congressional session. Nevertheless, presidents have frequently used recess appointments to circumvent the possibility that the Senate may reject the nominee. Furthermore, as the Supreme Court held in Myers v. United States, although the Senate's advice and consent are required for the appointment of certain executive branch officials, it is not necessary for their removal. [70] [71] Recess appointments have faced a significant amount of resistance and in 1960, the U.S. Senate passed a legally non-binding resolution against recess appointments. [ citation needed] Main article: United States congressional committee Committee Room 226 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, used for hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee Constitution of the United States". Senate.gov. Archived from the original on February 10, 2014 . Retrieved January 1, 2012.Although the Constitution gave the House the power to initiate revenue bills, in practice the Senate is equal to the House in the respect of spending. As Woodrow Wilson wrote: Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 1976: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (1975); new edition every 2 years A member who has been elected, but not yet seated, is called a senator-elect; a member who has been appointed to a seat, but not yet seated, is called a senator-designate. Our moment is now': can Washington DC statehood finally become a reality?". the Guardian. May 3, 2021 . Retrieved January 31, 2023. Valeo, Frank. Mike Mansfield, Majority Leader: A Different Kind of Senate, 1961–1976 Sharpe, 1999 (Senate Democratic leader)

Litt, David (2020). Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn't, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think. Ecco. pp.153–154. The House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted (one resigned before the Senate could complete the trial). [74] Only three presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021. The trials of Johnson, Clinton and both Trump trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction. When the House and the Senate Are Controlled by Different Parties, Who Wins?". The New York Times. July 11, 2018 . Retrieved November 21, 2023. As the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers of advice and consent. These include the approval of treaties, and the confirmation of Cabinet secretaries, federal judges (including justices of the Supreme Court), flag officers, regulatory officials, ambassadors, other federal executive officials and federal uniformed officers. If no candidate receives a majority of electors for vice president, the duty falls to the Senate to elect one of the top two recipients of electors for that office. The Senate conducts trials of those impeached by the House. The Senate has typically been considered both a more deliberative [6] and prestigious [7] [8] [9] body than the House of Representatives due to its longer terms, smaller size, and statewide constituencies, which historically led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere. [10]Ritchie, Donald A. (2001). The Congress of the United States: A Student Companion (2nded.). Oxford University Press. Hernon, Joseph Martin. Profiles in Character: Hubris and Heroism in the U.S. Senate, 1789–1990 Sharpe, 1997. However, in five states, different methods are used. In Georgia, a runoff between the top two candidates occurs if the plurality winner in the general election does not also win a majority. In California, Washington, and Louisiana, a nonpartisan blanket primary (also known as a "jungle primary" or "top-two primary") is held in which all candidates participate in a single primary regardless of party affiliation and the top two candidates in terms of votes received at the primary election advance to the general election, where the winner is the candidate with the greater number of votes. In Louisiana, the blanket primary is considered the general election and candidates receiving a majority of the votes is declared the winner, skipping a run-off. In Maine and Alaska, ranked-choice voting is used to nominate and elect candidates for federal offices, including the Senate. [23] Vacancies Brooks, James (December 14, 2020). "Election audit confirms win for Ballot Measure 2 and Alaska's new ranked-choice voting system". Anchorage Daily News. Archived from the original on February 19, 2021 . Retrieved January 10, 2021. The World's Greatest Deliberative Body". Time. July 5, 1993. Archived from the original on August 11, 2009.