The US Federal Government is broken up into three branches: executive, judiciary, and legislative. The executive branch consists of the President and his cabinet while the court systems make up the judiciary branch. This refresher is going to focus mainly on the legislative branch filled with our elected officials.
I started to research the our government because I did know what the difference was between a Congressman and a Senator. Truth be told, I couldn't remember. I'm sure way back at St. Marys, Mrs. Kenny taught us all about it and over the years that brain space has been replaced by Rihanna song lyrics. The legislative branch of our government is broken up into the the House of Representatives (nickname- the House) and the Senate. The term Congress is an umbrella term for them both. Therefore, to answer my original question: a Senator is the same as Congressman but a member of the House of Representatives is also a Congressman. While we're on the subject let's dive in a little deeper. The House of Representatives has 435 member representing each of the 50 states. The number of representatives vary from state to state based on population. As the population grows and redistributes the number can change. For example Connecticut has 5 Representatives down from 6 several years ago. The Senate however consists of 2 Senators from each state regardless of size or population. For a bill to become a law it must be passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and then be signed by the President. If you like to go more in depth and learn about the Legislature visit the links below as a start.
To find out who your US Representative is:
To find out who your US Senator is:
Hopefully this helped clear up some confusion and now we'll both be a bit more aware during the next election. In general politics bore me, but it's good to have a basic knowledge about the people who run the country.
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