What is a member of Congress?
Article I of the Constitution establishes the legislative branch, or Congress, which consists of the House of Representative and the Senate. The Constitution states, “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states.” There are 435 U.S. Representative and 100 Senators. House members, referred to as Congressmen/women or Representatives, serve two-year terms and are up for reelection every even year (2010, 2012, etc.). Senators serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even years so that only about 1/3 of the Senators are up for reelection in any given even year. Since the Senate is made up of 100 Senators, each state sends two Senators to represent them in Washington. In the House of Representatives, a state’s representation is based on its population. States with small populations like North Dakota, Vermont and Delaware send only one representative to Washington, while the most populous stat
