How does CONGRESS effect us in the world today?

Answer 1

Interestingly enough, the House has little impact on Foreign Policy, except through "sense of the house" resolutions, Budget hearings and resolutions affecting State Department and Military,and House financial operations overall, (House proposes, Senate Disposes).

The Senate's position of "Advise and Consent" is where some believe real power in Foreign Policy resides, since the Senate must approve Treaties proposed by the President and State Department. It wasn't always that way either, since the Senate prerogative to propose Amendments or changes to Treaties, and even language additions to treaty Preambles to satisfy certain Senate critics-at times Republican, at times Democrat-regarding the intent and actual purpose of a specific treaty, have mostly arisen during the twentieth century.

In other ways the U.S. representative bodies-House and Senate, have varying degrees of impact depending on the Chairmanship and Membership of the various standing committees-Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Appropriations, and many more. Even subcommittees of the House and Senate standing committees get in the act with hearings and investigations.

SO, overall I would suggest that although Foreign Policy is the purview of the President and State Department, Congress has much more of an impact today than even a generation ago.