4 Major Misconceptions About Congress, Debunked

On paper, the basic structure and function of the United States Congress is pretty straightforward. It’s a two-parter: The House of Representatives has around 435 members, divided among the states based mostly on population. The Senate has 100 members, two to each state regardless of population. And it’s the legislative branch, meaning it makes laws.

In practice, though, Congress is complicated—and sometimes it’s hard to tell fact from an assumption you made based on the headline of an article you never read. We’re shedding light on some common congressional myths and misunderstandings, from the process of vetoing a veto to the truth about all those purported Capitol Hill perks, as adapted from the above episode of Misconceptions on YouTube.

1. Misconception: Members of Congress don’t get paid during a government shutdown.
2. Misconception: Congress can’t pass a law without the president’s signature.
3. Misconception: Congresspeople all rent or own homes in or around Washington, D.C. 
4. Misconception: Members of Congress get free health insurance.

Misconception: Members of Congress don’t get paid during a government shutdown.

Every year, Congress has to agree on a budget for the next fiscal year. If they can’t, the government shuts down, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees either get furloughed or continue working without pay. It makes sense that members of Congress, as federal workers themselves, would stop getting paid during the shutdown, too. But that’s not what happens.

Thanks to the Constitution, congressional paychecks keep coming during a shutdown. Article I, Section 6 specifies that members of Congress “shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.” The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, also involves congressional compensation: “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened.”

In other words, Congress can pass a law to change their pay rate, but it can’t go into effect until the next term. It’s meant to prevent members from jacking up their salaries without at least giving constituents the chance to vote them out of office. But it also keeps them from pausing their pay during a shutdown.

Congress might be able to pass a law that says future Congresses wouldn’t get paid during a shutdown—bills to that effect are introduced basically every time a shutdown is looming—but they rarely make it farther than glowing press releases. Similar constitutional provisions ensure that the president and federal judges get paid during a shutdown, too.

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Misconception: Congress can’t pass a law without the president’s signature.

Since time immemorial, students in American schools have learned how a bill becomes a law the good old-fashioned way: by listening to the Schoolhouse Rock! song “I’m Just a Bill.” Or at least they have since the mid 70s, when the song came out.

The anthropomorphic bill does technically cover what happens if the president vetoes a bill. “I have to go back to Congress and they vote on me again, and by that time you’re so old—” he says, at which point the kid he’s singing to finishes his sentence: “By that time it’s very unlikely that you’ll become a law.”

Congress can override a veto—but it’s less a question of age than popularity. Filibusters complicate this tremendously, but for a bill to make it to the president, it needs a simple majority of votes in each part of Congress. In other words, nearly half of all congresspeople can vote against a bill and it can still become a law. It’s not easy to pass a law, but it’s way easier than trying to pass it after the president vetoes it.

In that case, the vote threshold jumps from one-half to two-thirds—called a “supermajority.” That’s up to 290 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate. So if a bill just eked out the necessary support during the first go-around, it’s going to be extremely tough to convince dozens of legislators to change their minds before the second vote; its sponsors might not even waste their time trying and just let the bill die, instead.

But congressional override isn’t the only way to pass a law without the president’s signature. From midnight after the day a bill lands on the president’s desk, they have 10 days—not including Sundays—to sign it or veto it. If the president doesn’t do anything within that period, and Congress is still in session, the bill automatically becomes a law. 

Presidents have used this rule when they’re not thrilled about endorsing or vetoing certain legislation. In June 1970, for example, Richard Nixon let the 10 days elapse for a law that would continue funding the Special Milk Program, which subsidized milk in schools. The funds weren’t need-based, and Nixon felt that too much free milk was going to kids whose families could easily afford it. He’d passed a different law to provide free and discounted meals—milk included—to kids below the poverty line. 

But Congress (and Big Milk) loved the Special Milk Program. So Nixon let the law pass, stipulating that if he spent those funds at all—which he didn’t actually have to do—he’d funnel them into his other need-based programs. That plan didn’t really end up working out. 

Misconception: Congresspeople all rent or own homes in or around Washington, D.C. 

The exact number of days Congress spends in session varies from year to year. It also varies between the House and the Senate. According to Ballotpedia, the average number of days the Senate was in session annually from 2001 to 2022 was 168. In the House, it was 151 days.

But it’s not like the first chunk of the year is one big session and the second half is all home state time. The schedule is all over the place: Members usually get weekends off, plus some random free days or even whole weeks throughout the year.

Plenty of them do rent or buy homes in Washington, D.C., and head back to their home states whenever they have a long enough break between session days. But it largely depends on where you’re from and how much expendable income you have. 

Congresspeople whose home states aren’t too far from the capital might just commute each day they’re in session. Joe Biden, for one, earned the nickname “Amtrak Joe” by taking a 90-minute train ride from Delaware to D.C. and back again during his 36 years in the Senate. He didn’t live in the capital until his vice presidency.

Other members forgo long commutes or second homes in favor of just sleeping in their offices. It happens way more often than you’d think; at this point, it’s sort of a congressional tradition. When North Carolina Republican Ted Budd arrived in the House in 2017, one of the first things he did was install a Murphy bed in his office. As he told NPR in 2020, “It has a Tempur-Pedic mattress and [is] very comfortable, but it’s completely invisible during the day and just sleeps like normal.”

Other congresspeople favor cots or even just their couches. The general M.O. is to pack up your sleeping stuff early every morning, head to the members-only gym to work out and shower, and then start the work day when everyone else does.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone is a fan of this custom. Some congresspeople think it’s inappropriate or just kind of grody. As then-California representative Jackie Speier put it to NPR, “Imagine if you said to a constituent coming into your office, ‘Welcome, come into my bedroom.’ … I mean, I don’t know if I’d want to sit on anyone’s couch.”

Other members consider it a misappropriation of taxpayer funds. After all, you’re technically getting free housing. As Mississippi representative Bennie Thompson told the New York Post in 2018, “You get free cable. Free electricity. Free janitorial. Free security. No rent. It’s a heck of a deal.” 

Misconception: Members of Congress get free health insurance.

For some reason there’s a general belief that congresspeople don’t have to pay for any healthcare. They do: They usually get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The government does cover more than 70 percent of premiums for gold-tier plans, though. According to Snopes, the benefits are “very similar to those enjoyed by any employee of a large company.” 

But even employees of large companies don’t typically have a doctor on site. Congress does.

It all started in late 1928, when two members of the House of Representatives collapsed on the job, and a third one actually died. According to the Senate website, “Although officials in each case immediately summoned medical assistance from city hospitals, several hours passed before a physician arrived to render aid. In 1928 alone, incumbent members of the Senate and House were dying at the appalling rate of almost 20 per year.”

The House decided they really needed a physician on the premises, so they enlisted one from the navy: Dr. George Calver, who started operating out of the House Democratic cloakroom. In 1930, Calver’s duties expanded to cover the Senate, too. He got a bigger office—two rooms on the ground floor of the Capitol building—some funding, and an official title: The Office of Attending Physician, sometimes called the Office of the Attending Physician.

These days, the attending physician is responsible for providing emergency care not only to congresspeople, but also to its staff members, the Supreme Court, official visitors, and any tourist that needs it. Congresspeople can also pay an annual fee for additional non-urgent services like routine exams and certain diagnostic tests.