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Federal government in the USA

American government is predicated on the idea of a “balance of power” between the 3 branches of government: the Executive Branch (the Whitehouse), the Judicial Branch (the Supreme Court), and the Legislative Branch (Congress).  A series of checks and balances prevents any one branch from dominating the others.

While each President of the US has a slightly different idea of the relationship between the federal and state governments, the states are largely given the autonomy to govern their constituents.   

Decision-making in the US federal government

The United States Congress is the legislative body of the American political system. It is composed of two 'houses', the the Senate and the House of Representatives, who are together responsible for writing draft bills that may eventually become law.

Each of the 50 states elects two Senators to represent their state in the Senate for a two-year term, and each of these 100 Senators has one vote within in the Senate.

Each state also elects Representatives to the House of Representatives, though the number of Representatives each state receives is proportionate to the state’s population.  There are 435 Representatives in the House of Representatives and each Representative has one vote. 

The House and the Senate have equal legislative powers, though the US Constitution allows that only the House can originate revenue or appropriation bills.  The sources of proposed legislation are essentially unlimited (i.e. bills can be initially drafted by various stakeholder groups as long as there is a Congressional sponsor), and draft legislation sometimes follows a year or more of study of a subject before anything is introduced to Congress.  If the subject of the bill is sufficiently important, public hearings will be held to field public opinion.

After both the House of Representatives and the Senate have agreed on a bill, it is passed to the President to sign into law.  Should the President not sign the bill, it is returned to the branch where it originated, for further debate.  At this point, the Congress can override the Presidential veto with a 2/3 majority, or the bill will die in Congress and fail to become law.

Most legislation never becomes law and there is no specific timeline for the legal process to occur or predictability as to the passage of a particular piece of legislation.

• For more information about the US political system see The Library of Congress.