The House of Representatives

A house is a place where people live. It can be a single building or a group of buildings connected together. A house can be built with wood, stone, or brick. It can have a flat or a pitched roof. It can have windows and doors of different shapes and sizes. It can also have a garden and a yard. Houses can be very large or very small. Some houses have just one room. Others have hundreds of rooms. People can live in houses for work or for play. A house is a place to sleep and to eat and drink. It is also a place where people can be with their family and friends.

The House is the upper chamber of the United States Congress. Its members, called Representatives, are elected to four-year terms. The Constitution requires that each state have at least one Representative. Congress increases the number of Representatives when it admits new states or when population changes warrant an adjustment in apportionment.

There are several important rules that govern how the House works. One rule is that bills must be read and voted on in the House before they can go to the Senate. Another rule is that the House has a limited amount of time to debate and vote on a bill. A third rule is that a majority of the members must support a bill for it to pass.

House returns to work two months after he was shot. He is eager to get back to his work and runs eight miles before coming into the hospital each morning. Cuddy and Wilson are amazed at his physical condition. He still has a limp, but his leg is no longer painful. He blames his brusque demeanor on his leg injury, but Cuddy points out that his distrust of other people and aversion to risk-taking predate his accident.

Despite his reservations, House accepts Cuddy’s case of a woman who is paralyzed with no obvious cause of her injury and a man who drove his wheelchair into his pool in an apparent suicide attempt. He takes a second case, a cancer survivor, even though his colleagues tell him the patient’s problem doesn’t present a medical mystery. House explains that the cases give him the opportunity to test his theory that his pain is caused by an underlying psychological issue.

While the House’s rules and regulations provide general guidance, its members use their judgment in applying these guidelines to individual situations. The resulting variations in procedure are the product of history, practice, and tradition. They are part of the rich heritage of this institution.