Legislative: Powers & Functions

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Scrutiny

Congress and Parliament scrutinise the executive branch of government, represent their constituents and have lawmaking powers.

Parliament has many opportunities to scrutinise the executive.
- Question time, including Prime Minister’s questions, provides the opportunity to question a minister’s actions and policies.
- Select committees scrutinise government departments and question the ministers leading them.
- Backbenchers write questions to ministers, and MPs ask about issues which affect their constituents.
- A vote of no confidence can be tabled to try to remove the government and prime minister.

Congress scrutinises the executive differently to Parliament
Separation of powers means that no executive members are members of Congress, and so there is no oversight on the floor of either chamber, as with Question Time in Parliament.
- Congress can remove a member of the executive from office through impeachment.
- Committees summon members of the executive to answer questions before them, however, the president does not appear before a committee.
- Congress votes to confirm executive and Supreme Court appointments.
- Congress votes to ratify treaties.

Congress and Parliament scrutinise the executive branch of government, represent their constituents and have lawmaking powers.

In Congress, the Senate and House of Representatives have equal lawmaking powers.
- Bills must pass through both the House and the Senate, which includes a committee and voting stage before it can be signed into law by the president.
- Bills pass through both houses of Congress at the same time.
- If the bill fails in one of the chambers then it dies and does not become law.

In Parliament, the House of Commons has more lawmaking power than the House of Lords.
- The House of Lords can propose amendments and delay legislation, but lacks the power to stop bills passing into law.

Parliament has a small number of bills introduced in a session.
In Congress thousands of bills can be introduced in a session.
- In the 114th Congress, over 10,000 bills were introduced.
- Parliament introduced 193 bills between 2015 and 2016.
Fewer bills entering Congress are passed into law than in Parliament.
Members of Congress introduce more bills than members of Parliament.

Congress and Parliament scrutinise the executive branch of government, represent their constituents and have lawmaking powers.

Representation of constituents is highly important in Congress.
Whilst representation of constituents is still important in parliament, the party has more of an influence over parliament’s members than in Congress.

Members of Congress prioritise representing their constituents over their party, as constituents choose each party’s candidate for Congress and vote for them in elections.
In the UK, the party has influence over MPs because they select the candidates who stand for election.
In 2016 the Republican member Tim Huelskamp lost his primary in Kansas to another Republican nominee and so could not stand for congressional election for the Republican Party.

The frequency of elections differs between Congress and Parliament which can impact how well members represent their constituents.
- Seats in the House of Representative are elected every two years and every six years in the Senate.
In the UK, there is a vote for members of the House of Commons every five years, whilst the House of Lords is unelected.