the democrats have had control of the house and senate.
who has had control of the house and senate?
the democrats
democrats won control of the presidency and increased their control over congress in the 2008 elections, and newly-inaugurated president barack obama and his congressional allies focused on passing a major healthcare reform bill in the 111th congress. the senate passed a major healthcare bill in late 2009 without using the reconciliation process; because democrats had 60-seat super-majority in the senate, they were able to defeat republican attempts to block the bill via the filibuster. while the house continued to debate its own healthcare bill, democrats lost their 60-seat senate super-majority following the death of senator ted kennedy. following the loss of the democratic super-majority in the senate, house democrats agreed to pass the senate bill, while senate democrats agreed to use the reconciliation process to pass a second bill that would make various adjustments to the first bill. the original senate bill was passed by the house and signed into law by president obama as the patient protection and affordable care act (aca). subsequently, the house and senate used reconciliation to pass the health care and education reconciliation act of 2010, which contained several alterations to the aca. in 2016, republicans passed a reconciliation bill to repeal parts of the aca, but it was vetoed by president obama.
reconciliation (united states congress)
legislative power was vested in a parliament consisting of the monarch, a senate, and a house of assembly. for most of the union's existence, the south africa act provided for each province to have equal representation in the upper house, the senate, and senators were chosen by an electoral college made up of the province's members in the house of assembly and the members of the provincial legislature. the composition and election of the senate would later be modified as part of the move towards apartheid and the establishment of the republic of south africa. in the lower house of parliament, the house of assembly, each province was represented proportionally according to their respective populations and members were elected from individual districts within a province. the house of assembly had more power than the senate, much like the relationship between the house of commons and house of lords. in the case of a disagreement between the senate and house of assembly, the governor-general could convene a joint sitting of the two houses to review the legislation, make amendments, and vote on the bill. because the house of assembly was much larger than the senate, the system was designed to protect the stronger position of the house in any joint sitting. a similar method of resolving disagreements exists in the australian parliament and the indian parliament, but the australian senate and the rajya sabha are each half the size of the australian house of representatives and the lok sabha, respectively, whereas the south african senate was only one-third the size of the south african house of assembly. unlike the australian model (but like the indian one), no double dissolution election occurred before a joint sitting, further strengthening the position of the house of assembly and the prime minister over the senate.
south africa act 1909