A Complete Guide: What Does Congress Actually Do?
Knowing how Congress is structured, what powers it has, and how it actually functions is essential to holding it accountable and pressuring it to act on behalf of We The People.
Congress is the branch of the federal government that is responsible for making federal laws, controlling federal taxing and spending, and overseeing the executive branch. It’s the branch of government closest to the people and the one with the most tools to check presidential overreach.
Understanding how Congress works isn’t just a civics lesson. We elect members of Congress to make decisions on our behalf, and when Congress fails to do its job, the consequences affect all of us. Knowing how Congress is structured, what powers it has, and how it actually functions is essential to holding it accountable and pressuring it to act.
In This Guide
We’re leading the movement to make government more accountable to the people
What Are the Main Responsibilities of Congress?
Congress has three core responsibilities:
- Making federal laws
- Controlling federal taxing and spending
- Overseeing the executive branch
The framers of the Constitution designed Congress as the first branch of government, intending it to be closest to the people and to carry the broadest democratic mandate.
When Congress functions well, it:
- Acts as a guardrail against executive overreach
- Holding officials publicly accountable
- Ensures appropriated money is spent as intended
- Identifies fraud and abuse
- Translates public priorities into law.
When it fails to use its powers, the consequences affect the government and our society as a whole:
- Presidents fill the vacuum through executive orders that can be reversed by the next administration, producing whiplash rather than stable policy
- Courts are left to referee disputes that Congress could have resolved through legislation
- Agencies operate on regulatory frameworks decades out of date, patched together with administrative workarounds that no one voted for
- Power quietly flows away from the branch most accountable to voters toward the one least accountable to them
How Congress Works
Congress is organized into two chambers
The House of Representatives
- 435 members
- Members sever two-year terms
- Represent specific districts
- More directly accountable to voters
- Closely attuned to local concerns
- Seniority has a lot of influence
- Leadership tightly controls what gets voted on
The Senate
- 100 members, two per state
- Members serve six-year terms
- Represent entire states
- More insulated from short-term political pressure
- Individual senators have significant power to slow or block legislation
How Laws are Passed (and Stopped)
The House of Representatives and Senate each have different rules, leadership structures, and procedures, but both must pass the identical version of a bill before it can become law.
Once both chambers pass the same bill, it goes to the president who has 10 days to act and can:
- Sign it into law
- Veto it
- Take no action (allowing it to become law by default after 10 days)
Congress can override a presidential veto—but only with a two-thirds vote in both chambers, a very high bar. Historically, Congress has overridden only about 7% of all presidential vetoes.
The system to pass laws is intentionally difficult. The two-chamber system stops any single body from accumulating too much power, but the flip of that is that it makes major reforms genuinely hard to achieve.
Congressional Committees: Where the Real Work Happens
Most of the substantive work of Congress doesn’t happen on the floor–it happens in committees. Members often serve on the same committees for years or even decades, building deep expertise in specific policy areas.
Committees:
- Draft and amend legislation
- Hold hearings and gather testimony
- Conduct markups (line-by-line review of bills)
- Exercise oversight after laws are enacted
Because of the responsibilities and powers of a committee, who runs a committee matters enormously.
The Chair of a committee can:
- Advance or block legislation
- Decide what gets investigated
- Shape national priorities
👉 Learn more: Take a Deeper Dive into Congressional Committees
What Powers Does Congress Have Under the Constitution?
1. Enumerated Powers: What the Constitution Explicitly Grants
Article I of the Constitution lays out Congress’s core powers. These include:
- Taxing and spending for the general welfare
- Borrowing money on behalf of the United States
- Regulating interstate and foreign commerce
- Establishing federal courts below the Supreme Court
- Declaring war
- Admitting new states to the Union
- Proposing constitutional amendments (which requires a two-thirds majority)
The Constitution also gives the House and Senate exclusive powers:
The House
- Has the sole power of impeachment—bringing formal charges against a president, federal judge, or other official.
- Originates all tax and spending bills.
The Senate
- Has the sole power to try impeachments and vote on conviction and removal (which requires a two-thirds vote)
- Votes to confirm presidential appointments to the federal courts and executive agencies.
2. Implied Powers: The Necessary and Proper Clause
Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to make all laws “necessary and proper” for carrying out its enumerated powers. This clause has been one of the most consequential in the entire Constitution; it has enabled Congress to build the machinery of modern government.
Under this authority, Congress has:
- Created federal agencies and departments
- Established criminal and civil penalties for violating federal law
- Created a national banking system
- Enacted civil rights and labor laws
How Does Congress Check the President and Executive Branch?
Oversight Is a Core Function—Even If It Isn’t Explicitly Named
The word “oversight” doesn’t appear in the Constitution, but it’s essential to everything Congress does.
Congress cannot responsibly appropriate funds without knowing how the money is being spent. It cannot pass effective laws without understanding how they’re being implemented. And it cannot exercise its impeachment power without knowing what executive officials are actually doing.
Congress uses several tools to conduct oversight:
- Hearings — public (or private) sessions where officials or experts testify under oath
- Investigations — formal inquiries into the conduct of executive agencies or officials
- Subpoenas — legal orders compelling witnesses to testify or produce documents
- Budget restrictions — cutting funding for programs Congress disapproves of, or imposing restrictions on how agencies can spend appropriated funds
When Congress uses these tools and exercises strong, fact-driven oversight, it acts as an important check on power and can hold the executive branch accountable; when it doesn’t, that accountability gap can have serious consequences that affect all of us.
The Institutions That Make Oversight Possible
Congress doesn’t operate alone. A set of nonpartisan support agencies provide the research, analysis, and institutional capacity that makes effective oversight possible:
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) — provides in-depth policy analysis for members and committees.
- Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — provides nonpartisan budget scoring and economic projections to help Congress evaluate the fiscal impact of legislation.
- Government Accountability Office (GAO) — serves as Congress’s investigative and auditing arm, responsible for identifying waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending.
- Office of Legislative Counsel — drafts legislation on a nonpartisan and impartial basis.
Without strong, independent support institutions like these, Congress cannot effectively check the executive branch.
👉 Learn more: How Congress Checks the President (Congressional Oversight Explained)
How Has Congressional Power Shifted Over Time?
Congressional power has grown significantly since the founding of the United States—largely through the courts’ interpretation of two constitutional clauses:
- The Commerce Clause has expanded far beyond regulating trade between states. Courts have interpreted it to give Congress broad authority to regulate virtually any economic activity that affects interstate commerce, which has provided the foundation for everything from labor law to environmental regulation to civil rights protections.
- The Necessary and Proper Clause has allowed Congress to build the modern federal government, including its agencies, courts, and enforcement mechanisms.
However, in many areas like immigration, war powers, and tariffs, especially in recent decades, Congress has also ceded some of its powers by:
- Deferring to the president
- Struggling with gridlock between the two major parties
- Avoiding politically difficult decisions
Why Congress is the Most Important Branch
Most people don’t realize what Congress does, or how powerful it really is.
Under the Constitution, Congress is:
- The primary check on executive power
- The guardian of federal spending
- The institution with the authority to demand transparency and accountability
- The branch most directly accountable to voters
When Congress functions well, it can:
- Hold officials accountable
- Prevent abuse of power
- Ensure taxpayer money is used as intended
- Produce stable, lasting policy
When Congress doesn’t function well:
- Power shifts to less accountable actors
- Policy becomes unstable and inconsistent
- Oversight weakens or disappears
Understanding how Congress works is the first step. Holding it accountable is the next.
Congress is the branch closest to the people—we elect its members, and they serve us. When they avoid tough votes or neglect oversight, it’s up to us to hold them accountable.
That’s why we’re building a nationwide movement to push Congress to act with courage: to check the executive branch, defend the Constitution, and truly represent the people.
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