Legislative Branch

From dKosopedia

The Legislative Branch or legislature is a governmental deliberative body which debates and votes upon bills and holds the power to adopt laws.

In the federal government of the United States the legislative branch of the is called Congress and is considered a branch of government which is equal to, and independent of, the executive. Congress is bicameral which possesses two separate chambers, the House of Representatives (the "Lower House") and the Senate (the "Upper House").

In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise taxes and adopt the budget and other money bills. The consent of the legislature is also often required to ratify treaties and declare war.

Related articles

• Congress
  • Senate
  • House of Representatives

• Executive Branch
• Judicial Branch
• Passing legislation

External Links

• The House of Representatives
• The Senate
• Recent bills introduced in Congress
• Congresspedia - a wiki-based encyclopedia of all 535 members of Congress. Part of SourceWatch.
• Billhop - a wiki-based database of information about pending federal legislation.