Chapter 12 - Congress in Action Flashcards
Gives no money to candidate for presidency by will spend money on behalf or against candidate
Super PAC
Political Action Committee
Party functions in the pre-elections?
Nominating candidates
Organizing campaign/competition
Organizing voters (electorates)
Party is attractive to all different groups
Big Tent
Party functions in post elections
They are majority party
Presences become policy
Loyal Opposition
Perks of being majority party?
Easier to pass laws, choosing Constitutional leaders (Speaker of the House and Senate Pro Temp), Committee chairs/majority seats
Money in campaigns, money donated to candidates is protected by 1st amendment. (Free speech)
Buckley v Valeo
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA or McCain-FeinGold Bill)
No soft $
No electioneering ads —later changes and no longer applies
What is the start date of a session of Congress? Which Amendment set the date?
January 3rd
20th Amendment
Who tends to become the Speaker of the House?
Long standing member of the majority party
Duties of the Speaker?
Run the house, motion leaders, maintain order
Unofficially—help their party
Speaker’s role in floor vote?
Has the tie-breaking vote
2nd in charge after VP in Senate, member of majority party, given by seniority
President Pro Tempore
Closed meeting of party members in each house
Party caucus
What are functions of floor leaders?
Legislative strategists
Chief spokesman
Control floor business (majority leader)
Steer floor action to party’s benefit
What are the assistants called? What is their purpose?
Whips.
Liaise with rank and file and organize votes.
Purpose of committees?
Review, debate, report on bills coming through the house
The most important posts are held by members who have served the longest (chairman)
Seniority rule
Standing committees do what?
The most work in considering bills and recommending changes
All tax bills go what?
House Ways and Means Committee (House) Finance Committee (Senate)
What are subcommittees for?
Specific work on bills—handle the details of legislation
What is the rule of the House Rules Comittee? Why is it powerful?
Sets rules for amendments, debate, votes
Committee decided whether Bill even makes it to floor and how debate will go; it can rule a bill passed or can rewrite parts of bill
Select (special) committees?
They are est. for a specific purpose and a limited time; usually used to investigate issues in order to learn more about it or bring public’ attention to it
Members of both houses and can investigate or deal with routine issues
Joint committee
Temporary joint committee used to hammer out differences between house and senate version of a bill before sending it to president
Conference committee
Where do most bill come from?
Executive Branch
- proposed law
- a “bill” for special or temporary matters; involving something that does not require full legislation
- a bill
- joint resolution or resolution
An amendment attached to a bill; do not have to directly relate to the bill itself & would likely not pass on its own merits; “Christmas Tree Bills”
Rider/Earmark
How could rider make it harder to pass a bill?
Cannot just veto the rider. All or nothing. Defeating the rider would mean defeating entire bill
Five courses of action a committee may take on bill?
- Report favorably
- Report in amended form
- Refuse to report
- Report with an unfavorable opinion
- Report a committee bill (completely new bill by committee itself)
Who decided if/when a bill reaches House floor debate?
The House Rules Committee
Committee of the Whole
Entire house of reps. meet as a committee to debate as a whole.
meant to speed things up and streamline process in house
What is a quorum and why is it necessary?
A majority; in order to debate bills and conduct votes
Most common; “ayes” and “mates are given aloud and counted
Each name is called and they voice their vote
Becoming more common answering yes, no or abstained on screen
Voice vote
Roll call vote
Electronic vote
How is Senate different from House
Senate is less formal and allow more room for debate bc Senate is smaller and more political experience
Filibuster
Attempting to talk bill to death
What is Cloture Rule? Why is it important?
Can be passed at beginning of debate to limit total time to 30 hours; it effectively guaranteed a vote will come at some point
It can counter a filibuster before it gets underway
When are conference committees used?
They are convened when House and senate cannot agree on a final version of bill to send to president
What are president’ scour options when given a bill?
- Pass it
- Veto it
- Ignore bill and let it pass if Congress is still in session after 10 days
- Ignore the bill and let it die if congress adjourns within ten days; this is a pocket veto
Is president veto easy to override? Why/why not?
NO!
IT required 2/3 vote in both houses and that majority is hard to achieve
Clinton v New York
That’s was a challenge to the Line Item Veto as a violation of the Presentment Clause in Art. 1
The court ruled it was and the line item veto was declared unconstitutional and a bill passed by congress must be signed in whole or vetoed in whole by president
