United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the United States's national legislature, the United States Congress.

The legislators, known as "Senators", are elected to six year terms, and each state sends two Senator to Congress, no matter its size. The two Senators elections are staggered.

According to the United States Constitution presiding over the Senate is the primary duty of the Vice President of the United States.

Senators have assignments to committees, each with particular focuses, like Senate Intelligence Committee. Committees may plan legislation on their topic. Or they may sit to inquire into issues relevant to their focus. These inquiries can be extensive and time-consuming, and require the assistance of considerable support staff, as when the Senate Judicial Committee spent over a year looking into President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal.