Recently US Congress has faced criticism for various reasons, including the thematics of partisanship, low congressional job approval, the lack of legislative results or not following regular order. One related question concerns the current state of Congress’ deliberative character. The US Senate has been considered to be a deliberative body. Both houses of Congress recognize debate as a part of their rules and decision-making process. The debates and disputes are considered as a way to conduct oversight and question of representation. The idea of the paper is to review the recent developments of US Congressional politics in particular from the perspectives of deliberation and debate. How the idea of deliberation relates to the institutional setting; how the specificity of Congress as a legislature has an effect to congressional debates; and to what extent there is room for congressional debates and deliberation as a part of congressional politics.
