The Constitution of the United States of America was approved on September 17, 1787, by delegates from the twelve states in attendance. Article 1 dictates how the legislative branch will be run. The main focus of Congress is to create laws. It created a bicameral legislature, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Although each section relies heavily on each other, they have specific differences that separate them.
At the time of the creation of the Constitution, the states began to argue over their amount of representation. Larger states, such as Virginia, wanted representation in Congress based on population, since they had a large population. If they had more say in court, then they could control better what goes on in the country. Smaller states, like New Jersey, argued that each state should have an equal amount of representatives. Since they had less population, if Virginia got its way, small states like New Jersey would not be represented well. Due to this argument, the Senate was created to satisfy New Jersey, and the House of Representatives was created to appease Virginia. .
The House of Representatives has four hundred and thirty five representatives, unlike the Senate, which has a total of one hundred senators, two representing each state. In the Senate, each senate seat goes up for re-election every six years. In the House, it is ever two years. To become a representative, one must have been a citizen of the United States for at least seven years. In the case of the Senate, one must have been a citizen for nine years. In the Senate, one must be at least thirty years old, while in the House it is twenty five years old. A similarity is that both senators and representatives must live in the state they wish to represent at the time of election. For example, when Senator Hilary Clinton ran for the Senate seat in New York, she moved to Chappaqua, NY only a month or two before the election.
