Chapter 11 Legislative Branch

Question 1

Virginia plan

Answer 1

The delegates from Virginia
came to the Convention and proposed that representation be changed in the Congress. They wanted
the states to be represented based on their population. That was an obvious position for Virginia to
take because Virginia had more people than any other state

Question 2

New Jersey Plan

Answer 2

the small states proposed that representation stay the way it was under the Articles of Confederation, where each
state had equal power in the Congress regardless of its population

Question 3

Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise

Answer 3

avoid having
to decide between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. Instead, they were able to do both of
those plans. How? Split Congress in two. If you split the Congress into two separate assemblies

Question 4

unicameral.

Answer 4

It was a big problem. The way they got past it was to strike a deal, and that deal was the Great
Compromise. Sometimes it’s called the Connecticut Compromise because the guy who proposed
it was from Connecticut. Basically, this compromise provided a way for the framers to avoid having
to decide between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan. Instead, they were able to do both of
those plans. How? Split Congress in two. If you split the Congress into two separate assemblies, then
you can follow the Virginia Plan in one and the New Jersey Plan in the other. Under the Articles of
Confederation, the Congress was unicameral. Because of the Great Compromise, Congress
switched from being unicameral to bicameral. So it has two chambers because it now has two
different assemblies—the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Question 5

bicameral

Answer 5

Because of the Great Compromise, Congress
switched from being unicameral to bicameral. So it has two chambers because it now has two
different assemblies—the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Question 6

bicameralism

Answer 6

bicameralism. This arrangement makes lawmaking difficult because it doubles the amount of work required to pass a bill. Instead of a unicameral legislature where a bill just has to be passed once, in
bicameral legislature, it has to be passed twice. And it has to be passed in each chamber with identical language. This difficulty is important for several reasons, and I want to make sure you understand those, so let’s talk about them.

Question 7

terms of office

Answer 7

In the House of Representatives, members are elected to serve two-year terms. In the Senate,members are elected to serve six-year terms. So a senator’s term is three times as long as a representative’s term

Question 8

staggered

Answer 8

? In the House of Representatives, all of the seats are up for election at
the same time. Members have two-year terms, every two years we have an election, and every seat
is up for election when that happens. But it’s different in the Senate. Over there, the members’ terms
are staggered so that only one-third of the Senate seats are up for election at a time. Let’s talk about
how that happens.

Question 9

term limit

Answer 9

A term limit is a limit on how many times
someone can be elected to office. If you think about the U.S. presidency, that office is subject to a
term limit. A person is only allowed to be elected president twice. But again, there’s no such limit in
Congress. So someone can serve in Congress for as long as they can convince voters to keep sending
them back.

Question 10

constituency

Answer 10

I also want to talk about the geographic constituencies of members. Now that’s a big word,
constituency. Let’s make sure you understand what it means. A constituency is the area that a public
official represents and the people who live there.

Question 11

constituents

Answer 11

Those people are called constituents.
Representatives have different constituencies than senators.

Question 12

congressional district

Answer 12

House is called a congressional district. Think about a state
that has ten seats in the House. To choose those ten representatives, the state would divide its map
into ten congressional districts, and each district would elect one member of the House. Now imagine a state that only has two representatives in the U.S. House

Question 13

enumerated powers

Answer 13

w the enumerated powers
of Congress, but that’s not a problem because we already covered it in federalism, so you should be
familiar with those. Remember that the word enumerated refers to a list. So when we say the powers
of Congress are enumerated, what we mean is that they are specifically listed in the Constitution.
The items on that list include the power to tax, the power to regulate bankruptcy, power to regulate
commerce between states and with foreign countries. This is how we know Congress has the power
to coin money, declare war, establish a postal system, and all of those things.

Question 14

necessary and proper clause

Answer 14

necessary and proper clause. It’s the very last thing on the
list of enumerated powers. So just picture it. You have this list of things that Congress is authorized
to do. And then at the bottom of the list, it says Congress also has power to do anything that’s
necessary and proper to carry out the powers that are delegated to the national government.

Question 15

imply

Answer 15

n imply that that power exists under the
necessary and proper clause because the enumerated powers tell Congress that it has authority to
punish people. You can’t punish people who commit serious crimes without a prison where you can
lock them up, so we imply the power to build and maintain prisons.

Question 16

hierarchy

Answer 16

The executive branch is organized as a hierarchy. There are bureaus, and boards, and commissions,
and agencies, and all of that (these organizations that carry out the laws that Congress passes). But
all of those things are under the president. So the executive branch all leads up to one person at the
top: the president.

Question 17

unilateral actor

Answer 17

There’s no one else at the top of the executive branch
that the president has to deal with or negotiate with before taking action

Question 18

delegate

Answer 18

Even Congress has recognized the value of this. You’ll find in some of the laws they pass, they delegate authority to the
president to make decisions that you would ordinarily expect to come out of Congress. So let’s say Congress has something they want to accomplish, but they cannot agree on how to accomplish it. They might just pass a law stating the general goal and then delegate to the president the authority to decide how specifically we will meet that goal. So even though most of the national government’s powers are specifically given to Congress by the Constitution, the president has become a formidable rival.

Question 19

majority leader

Answer 19

In each chamber of Congress, the House and the Senate, there’s a majority party and a minority party based on which party won the most seats in the last election. Once we know that (which party will have the majority and which party will be in the minority), those parties elect their leaders. In the House, the members of the majority party will vote to choose one of their own as the majority leader. They’ll also vote to choose one of their ownas the majority whip. The minority party will do the same. They vote to choose one of their own as the minority leader, and they vote to choose one of their own as the minority whip. In the Senate, they do the same thing: majority party chooses the majority leader and the majority whip; minority party chooses its leader and its whip

Question 20

majority whip

Answer 20

In each chamber of Congress, the House and the Senate, there’s a majority party and a minority party based on which party won the most seats in the last election. Once we know that (which party will have the majority and which party will be in the minority), those parties elect their leaders. In the House, the members of the majority party will vote to choose one of their own as the majority leader. They’ll also vote to choose one of their ownas the majority whip. The minority party will do the same. They vote to choose one of their own as the minority leader, and they vote to choose one of their own as the minority whip. In the Senate, they do the same thing: majority party chooses the majority leader and the majority whip; minority party chooses its leader and its whip

Question 21

minority leader

Answer 21

In each chamber of Congress, the House and the Senate, there’s a majority party and a minority party based on which party won the most seats in the last election. Once we know that (which party will have the majority and which party will be in the minority), those parties elect their leaders. In the House, the members of the majority party will vote to choose one of their own as the majority leader. They’ll also vote to choose one of their ownas the majority whip. The minority party will do the same. They vote to choose one of their own as the minority leader, and they vote to choose one of their own as the minority whip. In the Senate, they do the same thing: majority party chooses the majority leader and the majority whip; minority party chooses its leader and its whip

Question 22

minority whip

Answer 22

In each chamber of Congress, the House and the Senate, there’s a majority party and a minority party based on which party won the most seats in the last election. Once we know that (which party will have the majority and which party will be in the minority), those parties elect their leaders. In the House, the members of the majority party will vote to choose one of their own as the majority leader. They’ll also vote to choose one of their ownas the majority whip. The minority party will do the same. They vote to choose one of their own as the minority leader, and they vote to choose one of their own as the minority whip. In the Senate, they do the same thing: majority party chooses the majority leader and the majority whip; minority party chooses its leader and its whip

Question 23

whip

Answer 23

a whip is someone who goes between the regular members of the party and the leadership of the party. So,
if the leadership has something they want the regular members to know, the whip will take that
information down and convey it to the party members. I

Question 24

speaker

Answer 24

the speaker of the House. This
person is elected by the entire House of Representatives. The speaker is always from the majority
party because the majority votes together to make sure that they get this position.

Question 25

president of the Senate

Answer 25

In the Senate, it’s different at the presiding officer level. Unlike the House, the Senate does not vote
to choose its own presiding officer. Instead, the U.S. Constitution says the vice president of the
United States is the president of the Senate, which means the president of the Senate is not even a
senator. Because of that, this position has never become powerful in the Senate the way the speaker
has become powerful in the House.

Question 26

president pro tempore

Answer 26

Well somebody
does have to fill that spot, and that’s where the president pro tempore comes in. This basically
means the temporary president, or the person who’s filling the seat while the president is gone.

Question 27

standing committees

Answer 27

Let’s start with standing committees. The word standing means they’re permanent; they last from
one Congress to the next. We have a new Congress every two years because, every two years, we
have an election to fill the entire House and one-third of the Senate.

Question 28

bill

Answer 28

ot. A bill is a proposed law. W

Question 29

joint committees

Answer 29

The Senate has its own standing committees. Only members of
the House are on a House standing committee. Only members of the Senate are on a Senate standing
committee. But joint committees have members from both the House and the Senate. Sometimes there are matters that those two chambers need to cooperate on, so they’ll put together a committee
with mixed membership and handle the business. That’s a joint committee.

Question 30

conference committee

Answer 30

A conference committee is a joint
committee whose job is to work out the differences between House and Senate versions of the same
bill. A bill goes through the House, they’re going to amend it. If they pass it, they send it to the Senate.
It’ll go through the Senate, and it will probably get amended there too

Question 31

select or special committees

Answer 31

Lastly, we have select or special committees. These are committees formed for a specific purpose.
One example would be to conduct an investigation. Let’s say we have some kind of disaster, and the
response by the government is not good. Members of Congress are upset because the federal agency
in charge of the disaster response didn’t do a very good job. So maybe the House of Representatives
or the Senate will want to do an investigation. What went wrong inside that agency? W

Question 32

bill

Answer 32

A bill is a proposed law

Question 33

hearings

Answer 33

Before starting to rewrite the bill, the committee will hold hearings. They’ll listen to experts, people
who would be affected by the bill, and get information on what needs to be changed

Question 34

markup

Answer 34

Once the hearings are over, then the committee will proceed to a stage that we call markup. Marking up a bill simply means rewriting it or revising the language.

Question 35

tabled

Answer 35

And once the markup is over, the committee will
vote on its final product. The purpose of this vote is to decide if you want to send the bill to the next
stage of the lawmaking process. If the committee decides not to send the bill to the next stage, then
the bill is tabled

Question 36

floor

Answer 36

The bill will be referred out of the committee and put on its way to the floor. The word floor has a
particular meaning in the lawmaking process. When we say “the House floor” or “the Senate floor,”
we’re talking about that big chamber in the Capitol Building where the entire House meets or where
the entire Senate meets.

Question 37

House Committee on Rules or House Rules Committee

Answer 37

Assume that a bill goes through markup in a standing committee and gets approved by a majority
vote of the committee, so they refer it to the floor for debate and voting by the entire House. On its
way to the floor, it has to pass through another committee called the House Committee on Rules
(most people just say the House Rules Committee). This is a special committee that acts like a
traffic cop controlling access to the House floor

Question 38

rule

Answer 38

It attaches a rule to each bill that passes through.
That rule covers three things:
1. When, specifically, will the bill be considered on the floor? What day and time?
2. During floor debate on the bill, will amendments be allowed? And if they’re allowed, what
kind of amendments? So the Rules Committee might say no amendments. We have to take
this bill or leave it the way it is. Or they might allow amendments.
3. Once debate starts, how much time will be allowed before it must end? For example, if the
Rules Committee says there will be an hour and a half of debate on this bill, then that time
Chapter 11
11
will be split 45 minutes for the Republicans, 45 minutes for the Democrats. They’ll just have
to decide who gets to talk during that time because there won’t be enough time for everyone
in the House to talk.

Question 39

unlimited debate,

Answer 39

But there’s no rules committee in the Senate like that, so bills get scheduled for
debate on the floor by the majority leader. But there’s no restriction on how much time can be taken
during debate. The Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate, which means every senator gets to
talk on a bill, and they’re not on the clock. They can talk for as long as they want.

Question 40

filibuster

Answer 40

Think about what you could do with that freedom if you’re in the minority party, and you want to keep
the Senate from voting on a bill. You disagree with this bill. You don’t want it to pass. You can try and
accomplish that when it’s your turn by talking, talking, talking, and never stopping. As long as you’re
debating, the Senate can’t vote on the bill. This is called a filibuster. It’s a stalling tactic used by
members of the minority party to keep the majority from proceeding to a vote on a bill.

Question 41

Cloture

Answer 41

Let’s say you’re filibustering, and I want it to stop. I could make a motion for cloture. Cloture basically
means closure. Senate rules say that if 60 senators vote for cloture, then you have to stop your
filibuster so that we can have a vote on this bill. If less than 60 senators support my motion, then you
can keep talking. If 60 or more support my motion, then you have to wind it down so we can move on.

Question 42

veto

Answer 42

The second option, if the president disagrees with the bill, is to veto it. The way you veto a bill is to
send it back to Congress without your signature. If that happens, then they know you’ve rejected the
bill. It’s still possible for Congress to pass that bill into law over the president’s veto, but now it would
take a two-thirds vote in each chamber, not just a majority vote. For this reason, vetoes are rarely
overridden. It’s really hard for the House and the Senate to each get two-thirds of their membership
on the same side of an issue

Question 43

adjourned

Answer 43

There’s only one exception to this rule, and that’s if Congress adjourned during the 10-day period. By
adjourned I mean their session ended. That’s a problem because it keeps the president from vetoing
the bill. You veto a bill by returning it to Congress. If Congress adjourns during the period where you’re
entitled to consider the bill, then it’s not possible for you to veto it because there’s not a Congress to
send it back to. If that happens, the president can do nothing on the bill, and it will be vetoed.

Question 44

pocket veto.

Answer 44

So if you’re Congress, you just need to be aware of this. When you send the president a bill, you want
to stay in session for the entire 10 days so that if the president sits on the bill and does nothing, it will
automatically become a law. Because if you adjourn during those 10 days, the president can sit on
the bill, and it will automatically be vetoed. This is called a pocket veto. It’s just a metaphor. The
president can simply stick the bill in their pocket, and the bill will die

Question 45

omnibus bills

Answer 45

The first one is the use of omnibus bills. Think of the word omnibus as huge and all-encompassing;
something big with lots of different things in it. In the traditional legislative process, if you had a bill
that you wanted to become a law, you would put the bill into Congress, and it would move through
the process on its own. But that meant that if you didn’t have enough support for your bill, it would
die.

Question 46

riders

Answer 46

After all, the government needs funding.
Everybody knows when a budget bill is moving through Congress, eventually it has to pass. You don’t
want the military to go without funding, for example. We have to approve that bill. Since everybody
knows that, they take their individual bills and attach them to the budget bill. They just tack them on
as riders, and that allows those bills to go through Congress without being considered by
themselves. This turns the budget bill into an omnibus bill because it’s not just addressing the
budget, it’s addressing all these other topics of the bills that members of Congress attach to it.

Question 47

single-subject rule

Answer 47

Some state constitutions prevent this by saying that each piece of legislation must address just one
subject. It’s called a single-subject rule. But there’s no such rule in the U.S. Constitution, and that’s
what’s enabled members of Congress to start passing legislation through omnibus bills.

Question 48

multiple referrals

Answer 48

The first one is called multiple referrals. Usually, you would just take a whole bill and refer it to a
single committee. But if you’re a party leader and you want to limit the power of a committee chair,
you would split that bill up into separate pieces and refer each piece to a different committee.