Quick tutorial...
Congress is comprised of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
There are 100 members of the Senate - 2 for each state.
There are 435 members of the House - based on the population after the last census [every xxx0 year and redistributed before the xxx2 election]. Every state has at least one Representative. California has... 55 iirc.
All money bills *must* start in the House [which isn't to say that all bills dealing with money start in the House
]. All the budget stuff starts in the House, but there are often riders etc to bills that contain the 'pork' we've all heard so much about - those can start either place.
The Senate does a few other things the House doesn't [as the 'upper' body]. They approve some presidential appointments [about 800 of the 7000 executive department appointments, including Cabinet members, ambassadors, etc. and judges/justices], they also have to approve treaties and have the power to declare war [which is not the same as sending troops - the last official *war* we were in was WWII].
They have different roles in the impeachment process. The House acts as a Grand Jury and indicts/impeaches a person [2 presidents and... 9? 15? judges in history]. The Senate acts as the trial jury [with the Chief Justice presiding] in impeachment proceedings.
They both deal with things like import/export taxes and such but the State Department handles official relations with other countries and that's part of executive branch.
Most of what they deal with is domestic stuff. The president - as the head of the executive branch - is both head of state and head of government which isn't the case in Commonwealth countries like Canada/etc. The Queen is the head of state/ceremonial head of the country but the PM is the head of government/chief executive. He deals with most foreign affairs through the state department.
Carol [who hopes she managed to get all that right and who is avoiding doing what she needs to do...]
