Welcome back, citizens! Caroline here. Let's begin today with a trivia question:
Which elected U.S. government officials served the longest term?
If you guessed senators, then you nailed it!
Senators are elected for six years – that's two years longer than the president! Make sure you
have your guided notes printed. We have a lot more information about U.S. senators coming up!
Our objectives today are to describe the terms of office for the U.S. Senate,
list and describe the requirements of the job, and explain the process by which senators are elected.
Like we said, senators are elected for six years, three times the term of their
congressional counterparts in the House of Representatives. But, like representatives,
senators have no term limits. That means they can be elected over and over.
A few senators have done just that. The longest serving was Robert Byrd, a West
Virginian Democrat who held the position from 1959 until his death in 2010 – that's over 51 years!
So, unlike the House of Representatives, which varies based on population,
every state has two U.S. senators. How did that happen? You may remember from
U.S. history a debate on representation when our Founding Fathers were writing the Constitution.
Let's review quickly: States with big populations, like Virginia at the time,
wanted representation based on the number of people within a state. This was called the
Virginia Plan. But states with fewer people in the 1780s, such as New Jersey, demanded equal
representation in Congress – thus, the debate between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.
The solution, of course, turned out to be a bicameral, or two-house, legislative branch.
The House is based on population, while the Senate allows equal representation for every state.
Since there are more states with smaller populations than those with massive amounts
of people, the states with small populations generally have more power in the Senate,
while the states with larger populations usually have more power in the House of Representatives.
Wyoming has less than 600,000 people, the smallest population of the 50 states,
but it has two U.S. senators. California, on the other hand, has almost 40 million residents,
as of 2022. Like Wyoming, it elects two senators. Since there are 50 states and each
state has two senators, the math is easy: There are 100 members of the U.S. Senate.
Unlike a representative, which is elected from a congressional district, senators are elected
to represent an entire state. That means all voters within the state of Texas elect
both senators. A senator must receive a majority of the votes in their state to win the election
and to represent the citizens of that state in Washington, D.C. It wasn't always that way. Until
the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, U.S. senators were chosen by state legislatures,
not by popular vote of the citizens. One-third of the nation's senators are elected every other
year. That means in even-numbered years, 33 or 34 elections are held to fill the seats,
sparing a complete overhaul like what the House of Representatives faces with each election.
Like the U.S. House of Representatives, members of the Senate have exactly three requirements
of office set forth in the Constitution. One is even the same – want to guess which one it is?
If you said that senators must be residents of the state from which they are elected, you
got it! The others: A senator must be at least 30 years old, five years older than the minimum age
for a representative, and an individual elected to the Senate must be a U.S. citizen for at least
nine years. Our Founding Fathers placed that in the Constitution to ensure loyalty to the U.S.
In a previous lesson, we mentioned that the House of Representatives is sometimes referred to as the
lower house of Congress. That means the Senate is considered the upper house. Why,
you may ask? First, it's that six-year term. No elected officials in the U.S. government serve for
as long a term. Next, unlike the House, there are no time restrictions on speaking in the Senate.
Ever heard of a filibuster? It's a political procedure in which one or more members of a
political body prolong debate on a bill in order to delay a vote on it or even kill it entirely.
In this instance, a senator spoke for more than eight hours. The Senate also
conducts trials if a government official, such as the president, is charged with
doing something wrong. And the Senate approves presidential nominations for federal offices,
such as the Supreme Court, and also ratifies treaties made with foreign countries.
The 100 members of the U.S. Senate represent their states in Washington, D.C.,
making laws and handling other responsibilities during their six-year term. Being a senator is one
of the most coveted and respected jobs in the U.S. government. It's also one of the most important.
As we continue our look at the three branches of government, think about how each branch interacts
with the other and the separation of powers put into place by our founding fathers. Until next
time, citizens, continue to vote, debate, and participate, and remember to always be clever!