When Vice President Thomas Jefferson wrote his manual of parliamentary procedure, he observed that it was poor form for members of one house of Congress to refer to the debates or actions of the other house. “The opinion of each house should be left to its own independency,” Jefferson wrote, “not to be influenced by the proceedings of the other.” In this spirit of independence, and in an effort to avoid misunderstanding and ill will between the two bodies, members of the House generally do not mention the Senate by name and simply call it the “other body.” Senators, who no longer use Jefferson's manual as part of their rules, are more likely to refer to the House by name, although by tradition they do not speak critically of the House or question the motives of its members. House members find “other body” preferable to “upper body” when referring to the Senate and consider the phrase more in keeping with the equality of the two chambers.
See also Jefferson's manual; “Upper house”
