Chapter 11 Vocab: Congress: Balancing National Goals and Local Interests Flashcards
Incumbent
The current holder of a particular office.
Constituency
The people residing within the geographic area represented by an elected official.
Pork
Also called pork-barrel spending; spending whose tangible benefits are targeted at a particular legislator’s constituency.
Service strategy
The use of personal staff by members of Congress to perform services for constituents in order to gain their support in future elections.
Reapportionment
The reallocation of House seats among states after each census as a result of population changes.
Redistricting
The process of altering election districts in order to make them as nearly equal in population as possible. Redistricting takes place every 10 years, after each population census.
Gerrymandering
The process by which the party in power draws election district boundaries in a way that enhances the reelection prospects of its candidates.
Midterm election
The congressional election that occurs midway through the president’s term of office.
Bicameral legislature
A legislature that has two chambers (the House and the Senate, in the case of the United States).
Party leaders
The members of the House and Senate who are chosen by the Democratic or Republican caucus in each chamber to represent the party’s interests in that chamber and who give some central direction to the chamber’s work.
Party caucus
A group that consists of a party’s members in the House or Senate and that serves to elect the party’s leadership, set policy goals, and plan party strategy.
Party unity
The degree to which a party’s House or Senate members act as a unified group to exert collective control over legislative action.
Standing committees
Permanent congressional committees with responsibility for a particular area of public policy. An example is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Jurisdiction
The policy area in which a particular congressional committee is authorized to act.
Seniority
A member of Congress’s consecutive years of service on a particular committee.
Bill
A proposed law (legislative act) within Congress or another legislature. (See also “law”)
Cloture
A parliamentary maneuver that, if a three-fifths majority votes for it, limits Senate debate to 30 hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster. (See also “filibuster”)
Filibuster
A procedural tactic in the U.S. Senate whereby a minority of legislators prevents a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration. (See also “closure)
Conference committee
A temporary committee that is formed to bargain over the differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill. A conference committee’s members are usually appointed from the House and Senate standing committees that originally worked on the bill.
Law
A legislative proposal, or bill, that is passed by both the House and the Senate and is not vetoed by the president. (See also “bill”)
Lawmaking function
The authority (of a legislature) to make the laws necessary to carry out the government’s powers. (See also “oversight function;” “representation function”)
Representation function
The responsibility of a legislature to represent various interests in society. (See also “lawmaking function;” “oversight function”)
Oversight function
A supervisory activity of Congress that centers on its constitutional responsibility to see that the executive branch carries out the laws faithfully. (See also “lawmaking function;” “representation function”)
Veto
The president’s rejection of a bill, thereby keeping it from becoming law unless Congress overrides the veto.
