A US Senator represents all of Georgia in the US Senate, where they can author, sponsor, and vote on bills within the Senate that may become federal laws after going through the legislative process. The Senate, along with the House of Representatives, makes up the US Congress. Congress acts as the Legislative Branch of the United States Government. Like all states, Georgia gets two US Senators, both of whom represent the entire state for six-year terms in Washington DC.

Federal legislation is extremely important in our day-to-day lives. For example, S.3548 (better known as the CARES Act) began in the Senate. The “S” at the front of a bill number indicates that it started in the Senate, meaning a US Senator had to sponsor this bill. This involved garnering support for CARES Act among Senators, successfully taking it through all relevant committees within the Senate (in this case, the finance committee), and ultimately passing it on to the US House of Representatives where the bill repeated the process with US Representatives.

Powers specific to the US Senate include:

• Handling impeachment trials of government officials, which has happened 19 times, (including two presidents) in Senate history
• Voting on nominations of Supreme Court justices, Ambassadors, and other roles
• Voting on treaties
• Expelling Senators, which has happened 15 times in Senate history
• Investigating the executive branch