Federal government of the United States

The United States federal government oversees all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and US territories. It is distinct from, and in many cases superior to, the governments of each state. The federal government is divided into three branches, each with its own powers, duties, and organizational structure. The three branches are the executive, which includes the president and numerous regulatory agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Food and Drug Administration; the judicial, which includes the Supreme Court and the federal court system; and the legislative, essentially Congress, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The federal government has its primary location in Washington, DC.

Brief History

The Constitution of the United States of America—entered into force in 1789—created the federal government as a constitutional republic. One of the core principles of the Constitution is federalism, which causes governmental power to be divided among different regions (states) and between different levels (state and national). Since the founding of the United States, there has been a dynamic tension between the states and the federal government, primarily concerning which powers should be allocated to states and which should be the domain of the federal government. Many of the cases heard by the Supreme Court concern this issue, as the court is called upon to decide whether a particular issue is under the purview of the federal government or the states.

A basic premise of the structure of the federal government, with its division into three branches, is the idea of checks and balances, a system that not only divides power among the three branches but also prevents each from trying to assert too much power. For example, if the legislative branch passes a law that the president finds inappropriate, the president can oppose the legislation by refusing to sign the bill—such an action essentially "checks" the power of the legislative branch. At the same time, the power of the executive to reject bills is not absolute; Congress can override a presidential veto if each house can pass a bill by a two-thirds margin. This is one way that the legislative branch keeps the executive branch in check. The judicial branch can check the power of the executive and legislative branches by finding their actions unconstitutional. The executive checks the judicial branch through its power to nominate judges to the federal courts and the Supreme Court, and the legislative branch checks the judicial branch through its power to approve the executive’s judicial nominees. Even though one branch will often triumph in a particular situation, the idea of checks and balances keeps each branch from acquiring too much influence. Thus, the branches are encouraged to work together cooperatively.

Overview

A defining feature of the US federal government is its structure as a republic. Thus, the power to govern is believed to be vested in the people, who elect representatives to act on their behalf. The members of the federal government that are directly elected by the citizens of the United States are the members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The president, while chosen as the result of a popular vote, is not directly elected. Instead, when individual citizens cast their vote for a presidential candidate, they are actually voting for electors, who are members of the Electoral College. Electors pledge their votes within the electoral college to a particular candidate, so voting for a candidate’s elector is tantamount to voting directly for that candidate, although technically there is the possibility that an elector pledged to vote for a particular candidate might instead decide to vote for someone else.

The Legislative and Executive Branches

Voters cast their votes directly to elect senators and representatives. The United States has a bicameral legislature, which means that Congress has two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are one hundred senators—two from each state—and 435 representatives. The membership of the Senate is meant to be fair to states of all different sizes because each state has two senators regardless of how large or small its population. Membership in the House of Representatives, in contrast, is decided by population—the higher the population a state has, the more representatives it has in the House. The two houses of the legislature are structured this way to increase the chances that all viewpoints are fairly represented by elected officials.

Elections for members of the Senate are staggered, meaning that instead of all members going up for reelection at the same time, only a portion of the members are up for reelection during a given election. In the Senate, each member is elected to a six-year term. Senate elections are held every two years, and in each election approximately one-third of the seats in the Senate are at issue. In contrast, seats in the House of Representatives are contested every two years for all members, instead of using the staggering method. The requirement that representatives face reelection every two years was deliberately instituted by the Framers of the US Constitution, who felt that it would force the former to stay in touch with their constituents and remain aware of their most pressing concerns. Ironically, one of the most criticized aspects of the electoral system is the need for those in office to constantly solicit campaign contributions from their constituents so that they will have enough money to pay for their next election campaign. The frequency of elections for House members makes this issue even more urgent for them.

Despite the elaborate efforts of the Framers of the Constitution to spread power between the three branches of the federal government, there has been, perhaps inevitably, a tendency among the populace, the media, and others to give enhanced attention and scrutiny to the executive branch, focusing on the president as if the person holding that office wielded sole power over the nation. For example, there are detailed procedures that describe the order of succession to be followed in the event that the president dies, becomes incapacitated, or is otherwise unable to fulfill the duties of the office. The first in line to the presidency is the vice president. If the vice president also becomes incapacitated, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives would assume presidential duties. Next in line are the president pro tempore of the Senate, the secretary of state, and so on through the cabinet. These contingency plans are in place partly because of the unique nature of the office, in that one person occupies the office at a time. If one Supreme Court justice dies, for example, there are eight others to carry on until a replacement can be selected, and if the head of a Senate committee becomes ill, there are ninety-nine other senators potentially able to step in.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

While the executive branch is often the focus of attention in the public sphere, the constitutional powers granted to the legislative branch are at least as far-reaching. The Constitution grants the legislature the power to create any law that is "necessary and proper" for the federal government to perform its functions. Laws are created through an elaborate and sometimes lengthy process. First, a member of either the Senate or the House drafts a bill. The drafting process can take a considerable amount of time and requires research by the congressperson’s staff and input from the public and from lobbyists. Once drafting is complete, the congressperson introduces the bill into the House or Senate, depending upon which of these the legislator serves in. The bill will then usually be referred to a committee with oversight of its subject area. For example, a bill to regulate drug manufacturing might be referred to the Committee on Health and Human Services. When a bill is in committee, it is discussed and debated among different congresspersons, edited, amended, analyzed, and dissected. If the committee ultimately approves the bill, then the bill is referred back to the full chamber for a vote. If the vote goes against the bill, the bill may either go back to committee for further changes or simply "die," becoming an issue that no one pursues. If the House approves the bill, for example, it must be sent to the Senate to undergo a similar process.

A bill that passes in one house is referred to the other house for discussion and debate, and an eventual vote. If the second house fails to pass the vote, the bill may die or be amended in some way before being reconsidered. If the bill passes in the second house but has been changed from the way it was designed in the first house, then the two houses must discuss the bill in conference so that both houses agree on the final version that will be sent to the president. Once the bill reaches the president, the president may either sign the bill into law, veto (reject) the bill, or take no action. If the president takes no action on the bill and Congress is in session, then the bill becomes a law in ten days. If no action is taken while Congress is not in session, then in ten days the bill dies. Also, even if the president vetoes a bill, the veto may be overridden if two-thirds of each house agree.

The Expanding Federal Government

As one reviews the history of the United States and compares the distribution of power shortly after the country was founded with how it is in modern times, one can see that there has been a steady flow of authority away from the state governments and toward the federal government. This can be attributed partly to both the historical context of the nation’s founding and to technological changes during the country’s history. When the Constitution was written, the United States was a loose confederation of highly autonomous states that interacted with one another only infrequently. As new technologies were developed to make transportation and communication over long distances faster and more convenient—such as railroads, automobiles, telegraphs, telephones, and the internet—citizens of different states began to interact with one another more frequently and in a greater variety of ways. This, in turn, has made it necessary for the federal government to expand to manage and to support affairs that are not confined to a single state or governed by a single state’s laws. Not everyone in the United States has been pleased by the expanded role of the federal government, and one response to this trend has been the emergence of the states’ rights movement. Members of this movement feel that the original intent of the Framers of the Constitution was to keep as much power in the hands of the people and their local (city and state) governments as possible, in order to resist the accumulation of power by a potentially tyrannical federal bureaucracy.

Bibliography

"Constitution of the United States." United States Senate, www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/senate-and-constitution/constitution.htm. Accessed 28 Jan. 2025.

The Federal Leviathan: Is There Any Area of Modern Life to Which Federal Government Power Does Not Extend?—Intellectual Diversity and the Legal Academy. Harvard Soc. for Law and Public Policy, 2014.

Fleming, James E., and Jacob T. Levy. Federalism and Subsidiarity. New York UP, 2014.

Handbook of Federal Government Leadership and Administration: A Guide. CRC, 2016.

Remy, Richard C., et al. United States Government. McGraw, 2016.

Separation of Powers in the Federal Government: Overview and Perspectives. Nova Science, 2016.

Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government. General Accounting Office, 2014.

United States Government Manual 2014: The Official Handbook of the Federal Government. Bernan, 2014.

Workman, Samuel. The Dynamics of Bureaucracy in the US Government: How Congress and Federal Agencies Process Information and Solve Problems. Cambridge UP, 2015.