What is the Senate?
Most people are familiar with the term Congress, which is the name given to the Legislative branch of the US government. There are three federal branches that each have varying responsibilities, but for now, know that the Legislative branch is the one that makes laws. So Congress, the lawmaking branch, has two Houses— this is called bicameral. One House, the House of Representatives, has significantly more members with 435 representatives; this is because it is proportional to the population in each state. The Senate, the other house, has 2 senators per state, regardless of how many people live there. To put this into perspective, the population of California is 39 million, and the population of Wyoming is about 578,000. In the House of Representatives, California has 52 representatives, while Wyoming has one. In the Senate, they both have two senators.
So what does the Senate do?
As a house of Congress, the Senate is a part of the bill passing process. To put it simply, if the House of Representatives passes a proposed bill by a majority vote (218 of 435), the bill is then taken to the Senate. The Senate must also have majority approval (51 of 100) to pass the bill. Once the House and Senate give final approval after any last changes, the bill eventually goes on to the President to be signed into effect or vetoed, which means to reject a bill.
Other than that, the Senate has two big responsibilities: impeachment trials, and advice and consent.
Impeachment is what happens when a federal official is charged with a federal crime. In recent memory, President Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives and then acquitted by the Senate. To acquit means to find the verdict as “not guilty,” and is what happens when the Senate does not reach a ⅔ majority to convict. The Senate ultimately decides whether a public official is convicted of their charges, and whether they are able to run for public office again.
Advice and consent includes confirmation hearings, which means the Senate approves or rejects Executive appointments (the President’s pick for positions). This includes a number of positions, but one of them is Supreme Court Justices. These justices are in charge of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, and interpret the law and Constitution to make decisions on important court cases. When a Supreme Court Justice (there are 9), passes away or retires, the President is able to nominate who they’d like to fill the role. This nominee then has a hearing in the Senate, where Senators can approve or deny them the position. Advice and consent also applies to treaties, which are agreements made with foreign countries. The Senate is able to approve those treaties with a ⅔ majority vote.