History of the United States Senate

This article is missing information about large parts of the U.S. Senate's 20th and 21st-century history. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (January 2021)

This article is part of a series on the
United States Senate
History of the United States Senate
Members
Current members (by seniority by class) Former members Hill committees (DSCC NRSC) Women in the Senate United States Vice President (list) President pro tempore (list) Presiding officer Party leaders Party leadership of the United States Senate Democratic Caucus Republican Conference
Politics and procedure
Advice and consent Blue slip Closed session (list) Cloture Committees (list) Executive session Morning business Filibuster Nuclear option Recess appointment Quorum Quorum call Salaries Saxbe fix Seal Holds Senatorial courtesy Standing Rules Traditions Unanimous consent Vice presidential tie-breaking votes
Places
United States Capitol Senate chamber Old Senate Chamber Senate Reception Room Senate office buildings (Dirksen Hart Russell)
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. Like its counterpart, the Senate was established by the United States Constitution and convened for its first meeting on March 4, 1789 at Federal Hall in New York City. The history of the institution begins prior to that date, at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, in James Madison's Virginia Plan, which proposed a bicameral national legislature, and in the controversial Connecticut Compromise, a 5–4 vote that gave small-population states disproportionate power in the Senate.