What is the average income of people in Congress?

The compensation for most Senators, Representatives, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico is $174,000. These levels have remained unchanged since 2009.

What qualifications do representatives and senators have in common?

Do they share the same age and citizenship requirements? House members must be twenty-five years of age and citizens for seven years. Senators are at least thirty years old and citizens for nine years. Another difference is who they represent.

Can Senators serve as long as they want?

A Senate term is six years long, so senators may choose to run for reelection every six years unless they are appointed or elected in a special election to serve the remainder of a term.

Who determines if elected senators and representatives meet the proper qualifications?

The Constitution expressly delegates to each house of Congress the authority to be the final judge of the qualifications of its own Members (Article I, Section 5, cl. 1).

How US senators are elected?

The 17th Amendment to the Constitution requires Senators to be elected by a direct vote of those she or he will represent. Election winners are decided by the plurality rule. That is, the person who receives the highest number of votes wins.

Why should senators be elected?

Voters have elected their senators in the privacy of the voting booth since 1913. The framers believed that in electing senators, state legislatures would cement their tie with the national government, which would increase the chances for ratifying the Constitution.

What is the meaning of the 17th Amendment?

The Seventeenth Amendment restates the first paragraph of Article I, section 3 of the Constitution and provides for the election of senators by replacing the phrase “chosen by the Legislature thereof” with “elected by the people thereof.” In addition, it allows the governor or executive authority of each state, if …

Who breaks a tie in Senate votes?

“The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided” (U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 3). Since 1789, 283 tie-breaking votes have been cast.

How many members of Congress are millionaires?

More than half of those in Congress are millionaires, data from lawmakers’ most recent personal financial disclosures shows. The median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million.

What is the average net worth of a member of Congress?

The median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million. Much of the wealth in Congress is concentrated at the top. The top 10 percent of wealthiest lawmakers have three times more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.

Where do members of Congress get their money?

They get their money from all over the place. Darrell Issa made his money through managing his company, but he has since moved most of his wealth into the bond market. Others, like Senator Jay Rockefeller and Representative Joseph Kennedy III, are heirs to significant family fortunes.

How much do members of Congress make from outside investments?

In 2010, more than 150 lawmakers reported earning more from outside investments than from the congressional salary, which for a rank-and-file House or Senate member is $174,000. (In 2012, the median U.S. household income was $51,017, and the median household net worth was $56,335 .)