We Have a Bicameral Legislative System: Why That Matters Today

Today's Topic: Our Government

U.S. Capitol Building. Photo Credit: npr.org

By Pamela Hilliard Owens

As the election system heats up, I think it’s important to review how our government works. Also, one political party is trying to establish a total authoritarian system where they feel they can ignore the will of the people and the 15th Amendment, which is supposed to guarantee voting rights for all.

During the Obama administration and on into the Trump administration, there is a reason why there were some shenanigans with the Supreme Court nominees and appointments: Mitch McConnell was Senate Majority Leader and he made sure that Obama couldn’t get any of his Supreme Court picks through the Senate, and that Trump was able to get three, including one while an election was in process.

During the Jan 6 insurrection, there is a reason why Trump wanted Pence to “question” the electoral counts. The majority of the state legislatures have Republican leadership, and if the election was sent back to the House of Representatives, those states could theoretically send an “alternate slate” of electors that would have cast their votes for Trump.

As many of us know, Trump-affiliated people did try to illegally send alternate slates of electors and many of them are now in trouble at the state and federal levels.

Our Bicameral System

According to an article in Investopedia, a bicameral system describes a government that has a two-house legislative system, such as the House of Representatives and the Senate that make up the U.S. Congress. The word bicameral is derived from the Latin: "bi" (meaning two) and "camera" (meaning chamber). The British Parliament, a bicameral system, has been the model for most parliamentary systems around the world.

The bicameral system, which is used by the Federal government and all States except Nebraska, means that the legislative bodies have two separate “houses” that include the Senators and the Representatives. It is intended that the senate (the “upper house”) has equal representation (2 Senators per state for example), and the representatives in the “lower house” are elected according to population (which is why participating in the U.S. Census is so important). 

The American bicameral system was designed by the founders following the British parliamentary system, but with some significant changes. At first, U.S. senators were appointed by state legislators until the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, mandating that Senators be chosen by popular vote instead.

The founders designed the U.S. Senate to have members who were “wealthier and wiser.” As part of the Great Compromise, it was decided that there would be two senators per state and that the representatives would be elected according to population. This was intended to take into account the different sizes of the states. Of course, part of this was the Three-Fifths Compromise, where slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person so that slave-holding states wouldn’t have too much representation.

The Powers of Each House

Looking back at recent history with the previous president, it is important to remember that only the House of Representatives can criminally indict (that is, impeach) the President and other federal officials including Supreme Court Justices. Then the Senate holds the trial and votes to convict or not. The House of Representatives submitted articles of impeachment twice against Donald Trump (including the first for abuse of power for trying in 2019 to blackmail Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky and withhold Congressionally approved military aid in order to get negative information about Trump’s possible 2020 election opponent, Joe Biden).

Mitch McConnell, then the Senate Majority Leader, also said there was "no chance" the Senate would convict Trump and remove him from office while declaring his wish that all Senate Republicans would acquit Trump of both charges. Because of McConnell, the trial in the Senate was just performative, because the “verdict” was already decided.

All financial bills also originate in the House of Representatives, including concerning taxes, and then those bills are sent to the Senate. A bill does not become law until signed by the president after approval by both houses of Congress.

As stated earlier in this article, the House also decides presidential elections if no candidate wins a majority of electoral college votes, which is what Trump was trying to get Pence to do—adjust the number of electors he counted so that Trump would have the majority of electoral votes, or if not a majority, then Pence would have to send the election back to the House of Representatives.

The Senate also votes to confirm the appointment of more than 1,000 executive officers, including Federal judges and Supreme Court nominees, and it can ratify treaties with a two-thirds vote. Before votes can be cast for Federal judges, Senate hearings must take place, and before the hearings, the nominees personally meet with many of the Senators. During the Obama administration, Mitch McConnell did not allow Obama’s SCOTUS nominees, particularly Merrick Garland, the courtesy of even a meeting with the Senators, yet he pushed through Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination in 30 days, a week before the November 2020 Election Day, and while early voting was in process.

McConnell eliminated the filibuster in order to get his Trump’s picks approved with just a majority vote in the Senate, but now that President Biden has nominated the very first Black woman for SCOTUS, the Republicans think we should “slow things down” for a nominee who has already been approved by the Senate three times, including just last year.

Why All of This Is Important 

Understanding how our bicameral system works at the state and federal levels, as well as the concept of three co-equal branches of our government, will help us to understand how and why the Republicans are working so hard to cement almost permanent authoritarian power in all three branches and both houses of Congress. The same thing is happening at the state level.

We have seen what happens when they are in power or are trying to re-take power from the Democrats throughout all levels of government.

We have to work HARD to protect and defend our democracy at ALL levels before we can even think about any other issues. 

In the future, I will be writing articles about different issues with our government. As a retired educator who previously taught American history and government, I really enjoy helping people to understand our systems, past, present, and future.