Talk:Member of Congress
|WikiProject Politics||(Rated Stub-class, Low-importance)|
Directories of Members of Congress
This article is entirely inaccurate. There is no such term as "congressperson," and "Member of Congress" (abbreviated "M.C.")is the official title of members, also known as "U.S. Representatives" and "Congressmen" or "Congresswomen," of the U.S. House of Representatives ONLY--analagous to "Member of Parliament" referring to members of the lower House of Commons ONLY.
U.S. Senators are fully titled just that: "United States Senator," also abbreviated U.S.S.--to distinguish them from state senators. They are not "members" of the United States Senate, they are just "senators," just as members of the House of Lords are just "lords."
To refer to members of both chambers, it would be most accurate to say "senators and members of Congress," or less verbosely--but not entirely accurately--"House and Senate members." "Members of Congress" only refers to members of the House of Representatives.
- This above, anonymous comment is almost entirely innacurate. The U.S. Congress is bicameral, consisting of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives; anyone who has been elected to either body is, therefore, a Member of Congress. There is such a term as Congressperson; it is used frequently. (See  for an official reference using this term) Although "Congressperson", "Congressman", and "Congresswoman" are used colloquially to refer to members of the House, it would be more technically accurate to refer to them as "Representatives". The full titles are U.S. Representative or U.S. Senator; it is wholly accurate to consider either to be members of the body to which they were elected. This comment is not a productive addition to the discussion. XINOPH | TALK
- (Edit conflict) ""Member of Congress" (abbreviated "M.C.")is the official title of members." Oh really? I've yet to see a single authoritative source to that affect, but I have seen "Congressperson" used in reliable sources. (I have no idea how long this has been hear, and I don't fealling like trolling through the talk hsitory to find out!) - BillCJ (talk) 18:51, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
- The article formerly (and without support) said, "In common American practice, however, the term Member of Congress is used only to refer to members of the House of Representatives...". That was inaccurate and has been removed.
- Note the term's use pertaining to both chambers at the website of the U. S. Congress.
- --AuthorityTam (talk) 20:32, 16 August 2010 (UTC)
I was thinking it should be a disambiguation, certainly. The first thing that comes to mind is that Senators are Congressmen too, though they're usually called "Senator" instead. But the clincher is that... other countries have congresses too, you know. Disambig, then? -- John Owens 05:42 May 8, 2003 (UTC)
emphasis on linguistics, natural speech-istics
I'm all for gender equality- and looking at our use of language is central to that aim, but people don't say congressperson. what people say is important. when one addresses a female member of congress it's "congresswoman", no? so, that's the proper address. that still doesn't mean that we should change this article name yet. I gott go. I'll be back to flesh this out later. skizzno logic3 18:29, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
- read article. I'm all about calling everyone "congressperson" from now on. the term "congresspeople" shall come about I bet. were that congresspeepz were a word. skizzno logic3.1 04:03, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
Congresspeople is bad speech and I don't think we should encourage it. So is Congresswoman although it is widely used. When used as a suffix, -man is defined as "person" not as "male." In addition, when their name is used, I usually hear "Congressman Smith" even if Smith is a woman. (Plus if we start treating -man differently, won't we have to start treating every suffix/prefix defiantly, It would only be equal. Like 'One person is 'Apathtic', but two people are 'Abunchofpathetics.') Minnesota1 05:23, 4 April 2006 (UTC)Minnesota1 05:19, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
- PS. I am trying to find the page, but my source on this is the robert's rules of order. (they talk about "Chairwoman" not being acceptable.
- PSS. Also Human would change to HuWoman, and don't even get me started on Woman, what we put? Wowo...man?
Congresscritter redirects here. There's nothing on this page that indicates why it should redirect here. 188.8.131.52 16:16, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
- I agree. The term "congresscritter" deserves more than a silent redirect. Chandon 06:49, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
A quick reveiw of a Google search shows that "member of Congress" is used informally in writing and reporting, but not "Member of Congress" as a formal title. I've removed all uncited sections with old fact tags (from January 2009), and some sections which didn't fit without the removed material. Given that fact that this article has existed in its current form since 2004, the fact that their have been no citations added since then does not speak well for it's use as a formal term. If no sources are forthcoming in the next few weeks, I'll propose redirecting it somewhere else, possibly through an AFD to prevent it being recreated. Finally, the US is the only primarily English-speaking country that uses a Congress (per the Congress article. Several Spanish speaking countries use equivilents of the term, as does the Philippines (partially English speaking). - BillCJ (talk) 13:35, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
- I agree, this term is not frequently used, but there is a mini-movement among U.S. political scientists to start referring to both U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators as Members of Congress. Currently, "Congressman" is generally used to refer only to members of the lower House, just as "MP" is only used in the U.K. to refer to members of the House of Commons, even though technically Lords are members of Parliament as well. XINOPH | TALK 18:51, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
- Despite common usage, "Member of Congress" is actually an official term. I work at a congressional district office, and all pre-franked envelopes have a little notation "M.C." under the representative's signature. On the other hand, a letter we received from Senator Debbie Stabenow's office had a "USS" (for U.S. Senator) under her signature. What shall we do? Lockesdonkey (talk) 16:24, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
The article currently states that, "A Member of Congress ... is term used for a politician who is a member of a congress."