About the Legislative Branch of U.S. Government

Every society needs laws and in the United States, the power to make laws is given to Congress, which represents the legislative branch of government. The Source of Laws The legislative branch is one of three branches of the U.S. government—the executive and judicial are the other two—and it is the one charged with creating the laws that hold our society together. Article I of the Constitution established Congress, the collective legislative body made up of the Senate and the House. The primary function of these two bodies is to write, debate and pass bills and to send them on to the president for his approval or veto. If the president gives his approval to a bill, it immediately becomes law. However, if the president vetoes the bill, Congress is not without recourse. With a two-thirds majority in both houses, Congress may override the presidential veto. Congress may also rewrite a bill in order to win presidential approval; vetoed legislation is sent back to the chamber where it originated for reworking. Conversely, if a president receives a bill and does nothing within 10 days while Congress is in session, the bill automatically becomes law. Investigative Duties Congress can also investigate pressing national issues and it is charged with supervising and providing a balance to  the presidential and judicial branches as well. It has the authority to declare war; in addition, it has the power to coin money and is charged with regulating interstate and foreign commerce and trade. Congress also is responsible for maintaining the military, though the president serves as its commander in chief. Founded in 1921, as the General Accounting Office, the investigative Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits all budgets and financial statements sent to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Today, the GAO audits and generates reports on every aspect of the government, ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent effectively and efficiently. Government Oversight Another important function of the legislative branch is oversight of the executive branch. Essential to the doctrine of checks and balances envisioned by the nation’s Founders and implemented by the Constitution, congressional oversight allows an important check on the president’s power and a balance against his discretion in implementing laws and making regulations. One of the main ways Congress conducts oversight of the executive branch is through hearings. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs are both devoted to overseeing and reforming government operations, and each committee conducts oversight in its policy area. Why Two Houses of Congress? In order to balance the concerns of smaller but more populated states against those of larger but more sparsely populated ones, the framers of the Constitution formed two disparate chambers.   The House of Representatives The House of Representatives is made up of 435 elected members, divided among the 50 states in proportion to their total population according to the system of apportionment based on the latest U.S. Census. The House also has six non-voting members, or â€Å"delegates,† representing the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and four other territories of the United States. The Speaker of the House, elected by the members, presides over meetings of the House and is third in the line of presidential succession. Members of the House, referred to a U.S. Representatives, are elected for two-year terms, must be at least 25 years old, U.S. citizens for at least seven years, and residents of the state from which they are elected to represent. The Senate The Senate is made up of 100 Senators, two  from each state. Before the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, the Senators were chosen by the state legislatures, rather than the people. Today, Senators are elected to by the people of each state to six-year terms. The terms of the Senators are staggered so that about one-third of the Senators must run for reelection every two years. Senators must be 30 years old, U.S. citizens for at least nine years, and residents of the state they represent. The Vice President of the United States presides over the Senate and has the right to vote on bills in the event of a tie.   Unique Duties and Powers Each house has some specific duties as well. The House can initiate laws that require people to pay taxes and can decide whether public officials should be tried if accused of a crime. Representatives are elected to two-year terms. The Senate can confirm or reject any treaties the president establishes with other nations and is also responsible for confirming presidential appointments of Cabinet members, federal judges, and foreign ambassadors. The Senate also tries any federal official accused of a crime after the House votes to impeach that official.  The House also has the power  elect the president in the case of an electoral college tie. Phaedra Trethan is a freelance writer who also works as a copy editor for the Camden Courier-Post. She formerly worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she wrote about books, religion, sports, music, films, and restaurants. Updated by Robert Longley

Dna Sequencing Essay - 1043 Words

DNA Sequencing: Algorithms that Convert Physical to Digital EFFECTS: DNA sequencing, specifically with small â€Å"nanopore† sequencers, have the potential to advance medicine by increasing scientific knowledge of diseases and improving medical diagnosis in remote areas. The leading sequencer today is the MinION, which is an incredible 10x3x2cm and only requires a USB connection to a computer [5]. The MinION currently can sequence viral and bacterial genomes, but will expand to include full human genomes. The MinION’s size and capabilities allow it to target the microscopic source of ailments outside of the laboratory and in a greatly reduced amount of time. Soon after its deployment in 2014, the MinION was used to sequence a salmonella†¦show more content†¦A 100mV voltage is applied across the protein, which draws the DNA through the pore. When a DNA nucleotide is in the pore, a sensor records the change in current as an event [1]. This change in current is stored in a FAST5 file type, which stores metadata and the events [7]. The FAST5 data files then undergo â€Å"base calling†--correlating one of the four nucleotides in DNA with each event--in Amazon Cloud with a software called Metrichor or with offline open-source software called Nanocall [7]. To reduce error rates, base calling algorithms are based off the Viterbi algorithm, which determines the most probable â€Å"path† based upon surrounding measurements. In the case of base calling, the surrounding 5 or 6 nucleotides are examined, 5 having 1024 combinations and 6 having 4096 combinations [9]. While using 6 nucleotides doubles the analysis time, it improves the accuracy of base calling [5]. After base calling, the all analyzed events are compiled into a single complete sequence. This sequence is then compared to sequences in databases such as What’s in My Pot (WIMP) or 16S, which match the sequenced DNA to a specific species [8]. Because of the high speed of the input and base calling, usually species identification is done in real-time [8]. c. CONCERNS: In the realm of DNA sequencing, two main security concerns could threaten the computer systemsShow MoreRelated Human Genome Project Essay3161 Words   |  13 PagesHuman Genome Project Essay The Human Genome Initiative is a worldwide research effort that has the goal of analyzing the sequence of human DNA and determining the location of all human genes. Begun in 1990, the U.S. Human Genome project was originally planned to last 15 years but now is projected to be complete in 13 years. This project was started to find the 80,000 - 100,000 human genes and to determine the sequence of the 3 - billion chemical bases that make up human DNA. The information generatedRead MoreThe Human Genome Project1460 Words   |  6 PagesGene Essay Assignment: The Human Genome Project A genome is the complete DNA set of an organism. These DNA molecules are made up of two strands. Every strand is composed of four nucleotide bases: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. Complementary strands are paired in certain ways. Cytosine always pairs with guanine and adenine always pairs with thymine. The human genome holds about 3 billion base pairs, found in the chromosomes. Each of the 46 chromosomes are composed of thousands of genesRead MoreHIV : Useful Treatments For Infecting HIV807 Words   |  4 Pagesprocess of retroviruses to maximize the amount of good that they can do. Many of the specific proteins that they attack are involved in changing the viral RNA into DNA that is integrated into the host cell. This is why this treatment is a prevention of spreading the virus within the patients body but it does nothing to remove the viral DNA already integrated into cells. By preventing the spread within the host the number of AIDS-related infections decreases.3 The fi ndings from the Antiretroviral TherapyRead MoreThe Implications Of The Human Genome Project On Human Health1853 Words   |  8 PagesThe Implications of the Human Genome Project on Human Health: Focus on Cancer research Abstract: This essay investigate the implication of the Human Genome Project on human health, focusing on cancer research, the consequences faced by the Human Genome Protect and further examine how far science has come in liking genetic factors to human diseases. The paper outlines how the launch of the project has aided disease researchers with information needed to link genomes to human diseases and also findRead MorePeter Nielsen: Designing a New Molecule of Life576 Words   |  3 Pagesscientific and medical breakthrough. In this essay you will read a summary of Peter Nielsen’s article and the research he has done with this molecule. Peter Nielson, along with many other scientists, have spent years creating and experimenting with a synthetic molecule called peptide nucleic acid (PNA). PNA is an artificial polymer that has many similarities to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). It has the same storing features as DNA and RNA while being built on a protein basedRead MoreIndi Native American Captive Asian Elephants742 Words   |  3 Pages 2011). In these blood samples the white blood cells were isolated and two groups were established as WS and CB (Lei et al. 2011). The second method used was DNA extraction, amplification and sequencing of mtDNA and nuclear genes (Schmitt et al.2011). DNA was extracted using chloroform, amplified samples were electrophoresed, DNA sequencing was performed and everything was deposited in GenBank (Louis Jr. et al. 2011). Haplotype numbers were analyzed afterwards. The final method was the micro satelliteRead MoreEndosymbiosis and evolution of Organelles Essay16 31 Words   |  7 Pages Endosymbiosis is important as it enables us to understand the evolution of eukaryotes from the common ancestor. This essay will focus on: the early evolution of our eukaryote ancestor during Precambrian period, plastids origin along the algae family due to second endosymbiosis; discuss the evidence that supports the theory, including further examples of endosymbiosis. The theory, as discussed by Lynn Margulis, states that mitochondria originated from ÃŽ ±-proteobacteria bacterium which wasRead MoreEssay on Evolution925 Words   |  4 PagesEssay on Evolution There are many mechanisms that lead to evolutionary change. One of the most important mechanism in evolution is natural selection which is the differential success in the reproduction of different phenotypes resulting from the interaction of organisms with their environment. Natural selection occurs when a environment makes a individual adapt to that certain environment by variations that arise by mutation and genetic recombination. Also it favors certain traits in a individualRead MoreGenetic Engineering Technology1689 Words   |  7 Pageseliminate it at the source. Furthermore, utilizing the CRISPR/CAS9 system will eliminate the HIV binding sites on immune system white blood cells, essentially repelling HIV-1 retrovirus in the affected individual (Huang et al. 2017). Consequently, this essay is aimed to inform the public about the development and application of CRISPR/CAS9 to cure HIV-1 in treated individuals To demonstrate the mechanisms that drive the CRISPR/CAS9 system, it is first important to understand how and why it was developedRead More The Human Genome Project Essay2072 Words   |  9 PagesTwo years after the DOE proposed the idea of sequencing the entire human genome the NIH joined in the effort. The foundations of the project were laid and two years later, in 1990, the project was begun. The project was originally laid out to be a fifteen-year program that would have a budget estimated at three billion dollars (1). The DOE and the NIH established five major goals for the HGP. The first goal is to identify all of the genes in human DNA. This goal is phenomenal when it is considered

Tradition theory and Expressive Theory Free Essays

Fruitful dialogue on writing and learning was hampered not only by divisions between progressive educators and the traditional disciplines but also by a split within progressive education itself. Two stereotypes of progressive education grew up in the 1920s and 1930s and captured, in a sense, the profound tension within the movement’s approach to writing, a tension that prevented Deweyan progressives from developing a coherent and persuasive substitute to the writing pedagogies of social efficiency and liberal culture. First, there was the progressive as Bohemian, the self-absorbed individualist teaching children to inscribe avant-garde poetry under a tree while they neglected their spelling. We will write a custom essay sample on Tradition theory and Expressive Theory or any similar topic only for you Order Now subsequently, there was the progressive as parlor-pink radical, teaching children to write dissident tracts while they neglected their spelling. To those who had read their Dewey, both were gross caricatures of his philosophy and methods. Yet these stereotypes of progressive writing instruction point to the deep division in progressive thought between those who emphasized writing (and education) as a vehicle for individual self-revelation and development and those who emphasized its uses for social reconstruction and improvement. Clearly the two are not contrary, as Dewey’s educational philosophy adequately demonstrated, but in the highly charged political atmosphere of the interbellum era, details of Deweyan doctrine were often lost and, in the process, so was the prospective for a rational progressive approach to writing in the disciplines. Maxine Hairston argued for a paradigm shift in the teaching of writing in her â€Å"The Winds of Change: Thomas Kuhn and the Revolution in the Teaching of Writing.† She argued that the new paradigm must focus on the writing process, a process that involves the involvement of readers in students’ writing during that process. She also argued that students benefit â€Å"far more from small group meetings with each other than from the exhausting oneto-one conferences that the teachers hold† (17). Clearly, the process manner of teaching writing involves reader involvement by students in the writing of their classmates. But how thriving has that intervention been in the writing that students produce? Since this part of the paradigm is as significant to teaching writing as a process, we require having some idea as to how well it has worked. Another important influence on the promising writing process movement was the Dartmouth conference of 1966, a meeting of more or less 50 English teachers from the United States and Great Britain to consider common writing problems. What emerged from the symposium was the awareness that considerable differences existed between the two countries on how instruction in English was viewed. In the United States, English was considered of as an academic discipline with specific content to be mastered, whereas the British focused on the personal and linguistic growth of the child (Appleby, 1974, p. 229). Instead of focusing on content, â€Å"process or activity†¦defined the English curriculum for the British teacher† (Appleby, 1974, p. 230)) its purpose being to encourage the personal development of the student. As Berlin (1990) noted, â€Å"The result of the Dartmouth Conference was to reassert for U. S. teachers the value of the expressive model of writing. Writing is to be pursued in a free and encouraging environment in which the student is encouraged to employ in an act of self discovery† (p. 210). This emphasis on the personal and private nature of composing was also marked in the recommendations of Ken Macrorie, Donald Murray, Walter Gibson, and Peter Elbow. One perspective that gained distinction during the early days of the process movement was that the writing process consisted a series of sequenced, discreet stages sometimes called â€Å"planning, drafting, and revising, † though today they are often referred to as â€Å"prewriting, writing, and rewriting. † An article by Gordon Rohman (1965)) How to cite Tradition theory and Expressive Theory, Papers