Question

discuss thr demographic makeup of congress and how it compares to the us as a whole. what differences are there and what effects might these differences have

Answer 1

When the Framers created a bicameral legislature, they created a system of checks and balances within Congress by requiring a bill to be passed in both chambers. Apart from its political makeup, the new Congress differs from prior ones in other ways, including its demographics. Here are six charts that show how Congress has changed over time, using historical data from CQ Roll Call, the Brookings Institution, the Congressional Research Service and other sources. The structures, powers, and functions of the House of Representatives and the Senate are different, and these differences can affect the policymaking process: for example, by accelerating it or slowing it down, and by the extent to which bipartisan collaboration is or is not facilitated. The Constitution of the United States (1787) — The fundamental laws and principles that govern the United States. The document was a result of several compromises between federalists and anti-federalists at the Constitutional Convention.
1) The current Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever: Nonwhites including blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans, now account for 22% of Congress, including a quarter of the House and 9% of the Senate. By comparison, when the 79th Congress took office in 1945, nonwhites represented just 1% of the House and Senate. Despite this growing racial and ethnic diversity, Congress still lags the nation as a whole: The share of nonwhites in the United States is nearly double that of the country’s legislative body (39% vs.22%).
2) Degree holders in Congress: The share of representatives and senators with college degrees has steadily increased over time. In the 116th Congress, 96% of House members and all senators have a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the 79th Congress (1945-47), by comparison, 56% of House members and 75% of senators had degrees.
3) Congress has become slightly more religiously diverse over time: The current Congress includes the first two Muslim women ever to serve in the House and has the fewest Christians (471) in 11 Congresses analyzed by Pew Research Center dating back to 1961. Despite this decline, Christians are still overrepresented in Congress in proportion to their share of the public: Nearly nine-in-ten congressional members are Christian (88%), compared with 71% of U.S. adults overall.
4) The number of women in Congress is at an all-time high: About a century after Montana Republican Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress, there are 127 women in the legislature, accounting for a record 24% of voting lawmakers across both chambers. (In addition, four of the six nonvoting House members, who represent the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, are women.) There are more women in the Senate than ever (25), and in six states – Arizona, California, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire and Washington-both senators are women, up from three states in the previous Senate.
5) Less members of Congress now have direct military experience than in the past: In the current Congress, 96 members served in the military at some point in their lives, down from 102 in the previous Congress, according to Military Times. There are more than twice as many Republican veterans (66) in the new Congress as Democrats (30). Today, 19% of senators and18% of representatives have served in the military. (This analysis was conducted prior to the Feb. 10 death of Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican who served in the Army National Guard.) While the number and share of veterans in Congress overall have decreased, the newly elected freshman class boasts the largest number of veterans in a decade (19).

Congress is divided into two institutions: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The two houses of Congress have equal but unique roles in the federal government. While they share legislative responsibilities, each house also has special constitutional duties and powers. To balance the interests of both the small and large states, the Framers of the Constitution divided the power of Congress between the two houses. Every state has an equal voice in the Senate, while representation in the House of Representatives is based on the size of each state’s population.