Bi-cameral Legislature - having two houses

• House of Representatives and the Senate make up the legislative branch

• ​There are two houses in the Legislative Branch and that is called bicameral

• They make the national laws that we follow

House Qualifications

• Serves a 2 year term

• Must be at least 25 years old

• 7 year U.S. citizen

• Live in state and district you represent

• There are 435 House members total and that number will not change unless we add another state

• All house members are up for re-election every two years so the people have a chance to change the direction of the government if they are not happy

• The Speaker of the House is the leader and is chosen by the party that has a majority of members in the House.

The Census (Enumeration)

• The census is the counting of the people

• We count our people every ten years (Decade)

• We count the people so we know how many representatives and how many electoral college votes each state will get

• If a state gains population it will get more representatives and if a state loses population it will lose representatives

• The trend is people are moving from the north(Red) to warmer southern states(Green)

Special Powers Given to the House of Representatives

• A bill that spends money must begin in the House of Reps. (Purse Strings)

• Impeachment or to accuse a judge or president of wrong doing begins in the House of Reps.

• The House decides who the president is when no candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes

• Each state gets one vote and 26 states are needed to decide the presidency