Chapter 11 Terms Flashcards
An official count of a country’s population
Census
State legislatures actually redraw the congressional district lines to reflect population shifts
Reapportionment
Redrawing these district boundaries to favor the political party that controls the state legislature
Gerrymandering
A geographical area in a state represented by a House member
Congressional district
Having one representative elected from a given region
Single member district
Statewide basis
At large
Direct popular election of senators did not take place until 1913 with the passage
17th Amendment
Members of different parties join together in support of or in opposition to a bill because of some common interest
Coallition
Consists of all the members of a party within a house of Congress
Caucus
The leader of the party with the most members in the House or Senate
Majority leader
The leader of the party with the second-most members in the House or Senate
Minority leader
In charge of communications between party members in the House or Senate and their party leaders
Majority and minority whips
Largely an honorary position given to the most senior member of the Senate’s majority party
President pro tempore
The only position in the House actually named in the Constitution
Speaker of the House
Limits the number of terms of state legislators and members of Congress
Term limits
Free postage
Franking privilege
Seemingly unnecessary trips abroad
Junkets
Permanent committees that are generally more powerful than other types of committees
Standing committees
Those created for a specific purpose, generally to investigate a particular problem, and are therefore temporary
Select committees
Permanent committees composed of members from both the House and Senate
Joint committees
Ad hoc (temporary) committees drawn from both chambers that meet to work out a compromise agreement on a bill, or proposed law, that has emerged from both houses in different forms
Conference committees
Could write legislation, control a committee staff budget of over a million dollars, and listen to lobbyists and people from the executive branch (including possibly the president himself) who want to influence legislation
Chairs
A more formal way of preventing or delaying the passage of a bill
Filibuster
A motion to stop debate
Cloture
When Congress is not in session during the ten days, and the president does not sign it, the bill dies; discourages Congress from “stuffing the pocket” of the president with bills hastily at the end of a session
Pocket veto
Two house
Bicameral
