Federal government

What this level is

A member of the U.S. House cannot pass a law alone. Anything they introduce has to pass the House, then the Senate in the same form, then be signed by the President, and then be carried out by agencies the President runs. The diagram below shows where the vote you cast sits in that sequence, so you can see what the office decides directly and what it only influences.

• A representative serves a two-year term, so the whole House is elected every even year. Each one represents a single district rather than the state as a whole. ^{[1, 2]}
• Bills that raise revenue, including the federal budget, have to start in the House. The House also has the sole power to impeach a federal officer. Everything else requires the Senate as well. ^[1]
• Indiana's two U.S. Senate seats are not on this ballot. Senators serve six-year terms, and Indiana's two seats come up in other years. ^{[1, 3]}

How these offices work together

Each item below is one step the law requires: which office hands what to which, and why.

1. U.S. House → to U.S. Senate (Not on Indiana's ballot this year.)

   A bill has to pass both the House and the Senate in the same form before it can go any further, so a vote in one chamber only gets a bill halfway. ^[2]

2. U.S. Senate (Not on Indiana's ballot this year.) → to President (Not on this ballot this year.)

   A bill both chambers have passed goes to the President, who signs it or vetoes it. A veto sends it back, and two thirds of each chamber can override it. ^[2]

3. U.S. House → to Federal agencies (Appointed, not elected.)

   Members sit on committees that draft legislation and that question federal agencies about how they are running their programs. This part of the job continues between bills, which is why committee assignments matter as much as votes. ^[2]

4. President (Not on this ballot this year.) → to Federal agencies (Appointed, not elected.)

   The agencies that carry out federal law report to the President, not to Congress. A member can fund an agency, write its rules into law and question it in committee, but cannot direct it. ^[2]

5. U.S. House → to Federal courts (Appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, for life.)

   The House alone can impeach a federal officer, including a federal judge. The Senate then tries the case, so the two chambers do different halves of it. ^[1]

Every office at this level 9 races on this ballot

• U.S. Representative

  9 races in Indiana this year

  Members of the U.S. House write and vote on federal laws, including the federal budget and taxes, and oversee federal agencies through committees.

The problems this level has to solve

What the people elected to these offices will have to decide in the term starting in 2027, and why each one is a problem.

• Revenue bills have to start in the House, so the federal tax and spending decisions of the next two years begin in the chamber Indiana is filling this year. ^{[1, 2]}
• Which agencies a member can actually question depends on which committees they sit on. That is settled at the start of a term, which is why it is worth asking about before the election rather than after. ^[2]

Sources