When Congress appears in the news it is almost always in the context of a vote — a budget fight, a confirmation hearing, an impeachment. Those moments are real and important. They are also a small fraction of what Congress actually does. Understanding the full picture changes how you evaluate whether your representatives are doing their jobs.
The Committee System
Most of Congress's actual work happens in committees, not on the floor. There are 20 standing committees in the Senate and 20 in the House, each covering a specific policy area — armed services, agriculture, banking, energy, judiciary, foreign affairs, health, education, and more. Members are assigned to committees based on seniority, interest, and party leadership decisions.
Committees hold hearings where they call witnesses — government officials, experts, advocates, private citizens — to testify about issues under their jurisdiction. A Senate committee investigating pharmaceutical pricing calls drug company executives and patient advocates. A House committee examining military readiness calls generals and defense analysts. These hearings are public record. They are where Congress gathers the information it needs to legislate.
Committees also conduct oversight — monitoring whether federal agencies are implementing laws the way Congress intended. An appropriations committee can call the administrator of an agency to explain how money was spent. A judiciary committee can demand documents from the Justice Department. Oversight is one of Congress's most important functions and one of its least covered.
Constituent Services
Every member of Congress maintains offices in Washington and in their home district or state. A significant portion of staff time — often the majority — is devoted to constituent services: helping people navigate federal agencies, resolve issues with Social Security payments, assist veterans obtaining benefits, help small businesses dealing with federal regulations, and respond to the thousands of letters, calls, and emails members receive every week.
This is the part of a representative's job that rarely appears in the news. It is also the part that most directly affects the daily lives of ordinary people. A constituent who cannot get a straight answer from the Veterans Administration can call their senator's office. A family dealing with an immigration backlog can contact their House representative. These interventions do not always work — but they often do.
Appropriations
Congress controls the federal budget. Every year it is supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills that fund every function of the federal government — from the military to the national parks to the FDA. In practice Congress frequently fails to pass all 12 bills by the October 1 start of the fiscal year, leading to continuing resolutions — temporary funding measures that keep the government running at existing levels while negotiations continue — or government shutdowns when even a continuing resolution cannot pass.
The appropriations process is where policy gets made through funding decisions. A committee that wants to push a particular policy can do so by adding money for it or cutting money from it in the annual spending bill. Much of what the federal government actually does day to day reflects appropriations decisions most voters never hear about.
Confirmations
The Senate alone has the power to confirm the president's nominees. Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors, federal judges including Supreme Court justices, and hundreds of other senior government positions require Senate confirmation. The confirmation process involves committee hearings, investigation of the nominee's record, and a floor vote. The Senate can and does reject nominees — though most are confirmed, sometimes after significant delays.
Your senators' and representative's voting records, committee assignments, and financial disclosures are all public record at congress.gov. Their local office phone numbers are listed there as well.