A Congressman or Congresswoman (generically, Congressperson) is a politician who is a member of a Congress. In countries with a parliament rather than a congress, "MP" (Member of Parliament) is used instead.
In the United States, a Congressman usually refers to a member of the country's House of Representatives. Technically, Senators (members of the United States Senate, the other house of the U.S. Congress) are also Congressmen, but are rarely referred to as such to avoid confusion. The title of "Congressman / woman" is usually used in conversation to address a member of the House, for example "Hello Congressman Jones."
Note: American political scientists, in a further effort to clarify the issue, now use the term Member of Congress (MC), to refer to both members of the Senate and the House, and stick to Senator and Representative when referring to members of either specific body. These terms - Member of Congress, Senator, Representative - all have the advantage of being gender-neutral, reducing the number of variant terms needed. The term also brings the U.S. into line with the rest of the world's parliamentary bodies, reducing confusion abroad.
Members are faced with hundreds of decisions in both recorded and unrecorded votes on matters major and minor.
Members participate in floor debate, requiring knowledge of both the substance of the issue under consideration and the parliamentary rules of procedure.
Members must oversee their personnel and office expense allowances, and are held personally responsible for balancing those accounts at the end of each fiscal year.
Member and committee offices are flooded daily with communication, ranging from several page single-spaced essays, to crayon scribblings on paper bags, from thoughtful analyses to hate mail.
The reality is that most successful members of Congress are very closely attuned to public opinion in their districts, in large part because of the daily flood of communication they receive from back home.
A member of Congress has several offices to which correspondence can be directed, the personal office and the offices of the several committees on which he or she sits.
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