Representation and Lawmaking: Congress’ Chief Responsibilities
...ts. Not only Congress represents American people, but also has the responsibility of lawmaking. The Congress’ responsibility of lawmaking is accomplished by following the rules of congressional procedure. However, these two responsibilities might conflict with one another in many different ways. First of all, the Congress does not reflect the social composition of the United States. Therefore, people have to rely on agency representation to ensure that members of Congress will speak for the individuals that they represent. Another way of conflict is unlimited debate. The Senate is unique among the world’s legislative bodies for its commitment to unlimited debate. Because the different parties represent people, including minorities, in Congress, they usually debate. A tactic called filibuster allows small minorities or even one individual in the Senate to force the majority to give in. In 1994, Democrats began fighting with Republicans because the Senate Republicans were using the filibuster as a routine instrument of legislative obstructionism to make up for their minority status in Congress. Finally, because lawmaking involves a lot of co...