All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Legislature of the United States, which shall consist of a House of Representatives and a Senate.
The Legislature shall make the laws of the United States, levy taxes as authorized by this Constitution, appropriate public money in the manner herein provided, declare national policy by enacted law, provide for the general government of the Nation, and exercise oversight over all offices, departments, agencies, and instrumentalities created or maintained under the authority of the United States.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every two years by the people of the several States from districts established according to this Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof.
The Senate shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof for terms of six years. Each State admitted into the Union shall, upon admission, be entitled to equal representation in the Senate, and no further constitutional act shall be required to seat its Senators other than the lawful admission of that State and the certification of election.
Any Territory lawfully admitted into the Union as a State shall immediately stand on equal footing with every other State for purposes of representation in the Senate, representation in the House as apportioned by population, participation in the Censorial Branch where applicable under this Constitution, and all other constitutional rights, burdens, and obligations of statehood. No State, old or new, shall possess more or fewer Senators than another.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective populations as determined by the official census certified according to this Constitution. Each State shall be entitled to at least one Representative. The Legislature shall by law provide a uniform method of apportionment that shall apply equally to all States.
Congressional districts shall be contiguous and, as nearly as practicable, equal in population. No district shall be drawn for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring a political party, incumbent, faction, race, or person, except where narrowly required to remedy a violation of law or of constitutional rights. The Legislature may provide by law for independent redistricting commissions and judicial review sufficient to enforce this Section.
The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Representatives and Senators shall be prescribed by law, provided that such laws shall be uniform in protection of the right to vote, shall not unreasonably burden ballot access, and shall preserve public transparency, ballot security, and equal treatment among the States. Elections for all legislative offices created by this Article shall be nonpartisan.
No person shall be a Representative who has not attained the age of twenty-five years, who has not been a citizen of the United States for at least seven years, and who has not resided within the State from which elected for at least three years immediately preceding election.
No person shall be a Senator who has not attained the age of thirty years, who has not been a citizen of the United States for at least nine years, and who has not resided within the State from which elected for at least five years immediately preceding election.
No person shall be elected to the House of Representatives more than two times, and no person shall be elected to the Senate more than two times. Service by election to either chamber shall count only toward the term limit of that chamber. A person who has served two elected terms in one chamber may be elected to the other chamber if otherwise qualified. No law shall extend, suspend, waive, or evade the term limits established by this Section.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the House of Representatives or Senate, the executive authority of that State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies within the time prescribed by this Constitution or by law. No vacancy in either chamber shall be filled by appointment, except that law may permit a temporary emergency designation for internal administrative continuity not exceeding thirty days and not carrying the power to vote on the floor.
The Senators first chosen under this Constitution shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes, so that one-third may be chosen every second year. The transitional arrangements necessary to establish such staggering at the commencement of this Constitution shall be governed by the Constitutional Transition Article. Senators chosen upon the admission of a new State shall be assigned by law to classes in a manner preserving the regular stagger of the Senate.
Each House shall judge the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own Members, subject to judicial review for violation of this Constitution, of due process, or of the rights of voters.
A majority of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day and may compel the attendance of absent Members in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide by rule.
Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member. Each House shall keep and publish a journal of its proceedings, including attendance, motions, committee actions, amendments, and votes, except those parts which in narrowly defined cases of national military secrecy require temporary classification by law.
The yeas and nays of the Members of either House on final passage of every bill, every joint resolution, every declaration of war, every appropriation, every veto override, every expulsion, and every question of impeachment shall be entered on the journal and published promptly for public inspection. No secret legislative vote shall have legal effect.
No bill or joint resolution shall be brought to final vote in either House unless its full text, in the exact form to be voted upon, has been publicly available for not less than seven days. Any amendment that materially alters the substance of a bill shall require republication of the full text as amended for not less than seventy-two hours before final passage.
Every bill shall embrace but one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title. No law shall be valid insofar as it contains matter not fairly included within that subject. General appropriations bills shall be limited to appropriations and matters strictly incidental thereto.
Every bill shall be accompanied before final vote by a plain-language summary, a statement of constitutional authority, a fiscal impact estimate, and a statement identifying any existing law altered, repealed, superseded, or delegated under the bill.
All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills.
No money shall be drawn from the Treasury except in consequence of appropriations made by law. No appropriation shall be made except by a bill that distinctly states its purpose, amount, duration, and lawful recipient or administering authority. Multi-subject omnibus appropriations are prohibited. If regular appropriations are not enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year, an automatic temporary continuing appropriation shall take effect in the manner prescribed by this Constitution or by law, but at a reduced level and without new programs, so that delay shall not be used to compel unrelated legislation.
The Legislature shall not delegate its essential legislative power. No law shall confer authority to create crimes, impose taxes, expend unappropriated funds, suspend rights, regulate the general conduct of the people, or define major national policy except by clear and specific enactment of the Legislature. Administrative and executive officers may be authorized only to execute the law, fill up details within intelligible and narrow bounds, and administer programs according to standards fixed by statute.
No declaration of emergency, whether by law or by executive act, shall authorize the exercise of legislative power beyond the express terms of a statute enacted by the Legislature. Any emergency authority affecting civil liberty, public expenditure, military deployment within the United States, commerce, communications, or movement of persons shall expire within thirty days unless renewed by law. No emergency shall create a new tax, new crime, or permanent rule of civil conduct without ordinary legislation enacted under this Article.
Each House, and such committees as may be authorized by rule or by law, shall have power to conduct inquiries, compel testimony and records, enforce attendance, and investigate fraud, waste, abuse, corruption, maladministration, concealment, and noncompliance in all branches and agencies of the United States. Congress shall provide by law for the prompt judicial enforcement of legislative subpoenas and lawful contempt proceedings.
Every agency, program, emergency authority, and delegated regulatory power created by federal law shall be subject to periodic review and reauthorization at intervals prescribed by law, and no interval shall exceed twelve years unless this Constitution expressly provides otherwise. Congress shall by law provide a public schedule for such review and the consequences of nonreauthorization.
No Senator or Representative, and no spouse or dependent child residing in that Member’s household, shall trade in individual securities while that Member holds office, except as law may allow for blind trusts, diversified mutual funds, or broad market index funds. No Member shall accept gifts, compensation, employment, or emoluments that create a conflict of interest with public duty. Congress shall establish strict ethics laws, full financial disclosure, and independent enforcement mechanisms, but no such law shall weaken the minimum prohibitions of this Section.
No sitting Senator or Representative shall directly solicit campaign contributions while Congress is in legislative session, nor during any period in which that Member is present for committee or floor business, except as may be permitted by narrow law for filings and ministerial campaign acts not involving solicitation. Congress shall provide by law for campaign transparency, reporting, and enforcement consistent with this Constitution.
Members of each House owe a duty of attendance, participation, and faithful service. Chronic unexcused absence, concealment of conflicts, corruption, or abuse of office may be punished by censure, loss of privileges, expulsion, disqualification as provided by law, or criminal prosecution where applicable.
Senators and Representatives shall, in all cases except treason, felony, breach of the peace, or contempt lawfully adjudged, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same. For any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place, except that this privilege shall not bar prosecution for bribery, conspiracy, corruption, perjury, or other crime independent of legislative speech itself.
Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate shall, before it becomes law, be presented to the President of the United States. If the President approves, the President shall sign it. If not, the President shall return it with objections to the House in which it originated. The Houses may reconsider and override the veto by the vote required elsewhere in this Constitution or, if not elsewhere provided, by two-thirds of each House.
No bill shall become law if its operative legal effect materially differs from the publicly available text upon which either House cast final passage. No substantive criminal law, surveillance power, tax, emergency power, or appropriation condition shall be enacted by reference to unpublished standards, secret directives, or extraneous documents not incorporated in full into the enacted law and made public, except where narrowly required for classified military specifications that do not govern the general public.
All committee hearings, markups, and floor proceedings shall be open to the public and preserved by audio, video, and transcript, except in narrowly defined cases of military or intelligence secrecy as provided by law. Every closed session shall produce, when secrecy no longer lawfully requires otherwise, a public record of the subject considered, the Members present, and the actions taken.
The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. The Senate shall have the sole power to try impeachments, under oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall extend no further than removal from office and disqualification as provided by this Constitution and by law, but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law.
The Legislature shall make no law contrary to this Constitution, shall pass no bill of attainder or ex post facto law, and shall enact no law impairing the rights secured by the Bill of Rights or the structural protections of the several branches and the States. The Legislature shall not use appropriations, delegations, conditions, or emergency enactments to do indirectly what this Constitution forbids directly.
The Legislature shall retain the sole power to enact appropriations and revenue measures, but all appropriations, accounts, certifications, audits, and disbursements shall remain subject to the constitutional powers of the Censorial Branch. No law shall diminish the constitutional accounting, audit, certification, or lawful blocking powers vested elsewhere by this Constitution.
The Legislature shall have power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any branch, office, or officer thereof, provided that no such law shall enlarge the powers of any branch beyond their constitutional bounds, diminish the rights of the people, or evade the express limitations of this Article.