Quarter Two AP Government Review Essays 1. The majority party in the United States House of Representatives holds many advantages. One of these advantages include choosing who the Speaker of the House will be. The Speaker is the most influential person in the House. The Speaker has control over which bills are going to be debated and voted on. This is a huge advantage to the majority party, since the Speaker usually represents the majority party in Congress; therefore, the Speaker aids the majority party on getting their legislation passed. Lastly, the Speaker of the House is third in line to being president even though this rarely occurs. Another advantage the majority party has is that they control debate and construct the agenda. This is very beneficial, because only the bills that the majority party wants to talk about get introduced. …show more content…
The House also establishes time limits on debates since it has so many members. In the Senate, a filibuster, an attempt to defeat a bill in the Senate by talking and debating for an unlimited time to prevent any action from taking place, can occur because the Senate is smaller. Because of the filibuster and time limits in the House, passing a bill in the Senate will be more difficult. The House may pass a bill, but the Senate can kill it with a filibuster. Another difference between the House and Senate is, there is a Rules Committee in the House but the Senate does not contain one. The Rules Committee is a special committee that has power to establish rules for speeding up the legislative action, determining whether or not to add amendments to a bill, or deciding how long a bill can be debated for. Therefore, the Senate may pass a bill; however, the House Rules Committee can impede the progress of the bill in the