Chapter 6 Flashcards
What did Harry Reid change?
Changed to simple majority for cabinet instead of 60 votes
Congressional Demographics?
Educated and wealthy
Advantages of incumbency
Franking privilege Name recognition Credit claiming Case work Access to media Ease in fundraising Experience Redistricing
State legislature redraw districts
Redistricting
Drawing a district with or favor a party or candidate
Gerrymandering
What is the goal of congress?
Make laws and represent citizen’s interest
Describes the structure of the legislative branch
Article 1
Resulted in the creation of the lower house, HOR, upper house and the senate
The Great Compromise
2 house legislature
Bicameral legislature
How many senators represents each state?
2
How are HOR elected?
Directly elected
How many representatives are each state granted?
435
The process of allotting congressional seats to each state according to its proportion of the population, following decennial census
Apportionment
Has the power to make laws and raise and spend revenue
Congress
Must redraw districts according to population shifts
Apportionment
Proposed law
Bill
Who must consent to pass a bill?
Both houses
Issue proclamations and executive orders with the force of law
President
Issue quasi-legislative rules and charges with enforcing laws, rules, and regulations
Beaurocrats
Power delegated to the house of rep to change the pres, vp, or other “civil officers”, include fed. judges, with “Treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”
Impeachment
Senate has authority with ______ vote
2/3
Members in house?
435
Members in senate?
100
Who initiates all revenue bills?
House
Offers advice and consent on many major presidential appointments
Senate
Initiates impeachment procedures and passes article of impeachment
House
Tried trial for impeachment
Senate
More centralized, more formal, stronger leadership
House
Approves treaties
Senate
Another name for Congress
Millionaire’ club
Average age for House members?
58
What affect chances for re-election?
Incumbency and redistricting
Already holding office
Incumbency
Minority’s have an equal chance to elect more members of their party
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Each house of congress with the most members
Majority party
Second most members of congress
Minority
A formal gathering of all party members
Party causes or conference
Nominate or elect party officers, reviewing Committee assignments, discussing party policy, imposing party discipline; has specialized committees
Party Caucus; conference
The only officer of the House specifically mentioned in the constitution; the chamber’s most powerful position; traditionally a member of the majority party
Speaker of the House
Head of the party controlling the most seats in the House or the Senate; second in authority to the Speaker and regarded as the most powerful member in the Senate
Majority Leader
Head of the party with the 2nd highest number of elected representatives
Minority leader
Party leaders who keep close close contract with all members of his or her party, takes vote counts on key legislation, prepares summaries and bills, acts as a communication links with a party
Whips
Serve as a communication link, distributing word of the party line from the leaders to rank-and-file members and alerting leader to concern in ranks
Whips
The office chair of the senate whom the majority party selects and who presides over the Senate in the absence of VP
President pro tempore
Most senior member of the majority party
President pro tempore
Step one of budget process?
Submits a budget request
Mandatory spending, discretionary spending and entitlements
submits a budget request
Discretionary spending?
Defense and non-defense
Social security, Medicare and health, interest in debt
Entitlements
What is step 2 of the budget process?
Congress passes budget resolution
Sets goals for process, allocations, and spending bills; budget committees
Congress passes Budget resolution
Each chambers’ budget committee divides the budget into____ subcommittees
12
What is step 3 of the budget process?
Appropriation committees in the House and Senate write actual spending bills
Bills are then reported to committee for mark up; depending on rules
Appropriation committees in the House and senate write actual spending bills
Addition/amendments to bills
Riders
Step 4 of the budget process?
Conference Committee
Hammer out differences in the different versions
Conference Committee
Step 5 of Budget Process?
President signs, vetoes, or let’s sit
Override veto, pocket veto and continuing resolutions
President signs, vetoes, or let’s sit
If less than 10 days in congressional sessions
Pocket Vero
Spending measure that last for a certain amount of time
Continuing Resolutions
Types of committees?
Joint, conference, standing, and Select (special)
Committees to which proposed bills are referred; continues from one Congress to the next
Standing Committess
Standing committee that includes members from both houses of Congress set up to conduct investigations or special studies
Joint Committee
Special joint committee created to reconcile differences in bill passed by the house and the senate
Conference Committee
Temporary committee appointed for the specific purpose
Select (special) committee
Plays a major role in the House’s law making process; reviews most bills before considerations
House committees on rules
Contains the date the bill will come up for debate and the time that will be allotted for discussion, and often specifies what kinds of amendments can be offered
Rule
Kill bills; amend, hurries up the process
Standing committees
Petition that gives a majority of the House the authority to bring an issue to the floor in the face of committee inaction
Discharge Petition
Force bills out of the majority office
Discharge petition
Time of continuous service on a committee
Seniority
A session in which members offer changes to a bill before it goes to the floor
Markup
A procedure by which a senator asks to be informed before a particular bull or nomination is brought to the floor; request signals leadership that a member may have objections to the bill and should be consulted before further action is taken
Hold
A formal way of halting senate action on a bill by means of long speeches or unlimited debate
Filibuster
Mechanism requiring the vote of sixty senators to cut off debate
Cloture
Act that established the congressional budgetary process by laying out a plan for congressional action on the annual budget resolution, appropriations, reconciliation, and any other revenue bills
Congressional Budget act of 1974
A procedure that allows consideration of controversial issues affecting the budget my limiting debate to twenty hours, thereby ending threat of the filibuster
Reconciliation
Legislation that allows representatives to bring money and jobs to their districts in the form of public works programs, military bases, or other programs
Pork
Federal fund designated for special projects within a state or congressional district
Programmatic requests
Passed by congress in 1973; the president is limited in the deployment of troop over seas to a 60 day period in peacetime unless congress gives its approval for a longer period
War Powers Resolution
A process whereby Congress can nullify agency regulations by a joint resolution of legislative disapproval
Congressional Review
A process by which president la generally allow senators from the state in which a judicial vacancy occurs to block a nomination by simply restarting their objection
Senatorial Courtesy
Role played by an elected representative who listens to constituents opinions and then uses his or her best judgment to make a final decision
Trustee
Role played by an elected representative who votes the way his or her constituents would want; regardless of personal opinions
Delegate
An elected representative who acts as a trustee or as a delegate, depending on the issue
Politico
The political condition in which different political parties control the presidency and congress
Divided Government
The political condition in which the same political party controls the presidency and congress
Unified Government
Vote trading; voting to support a colleagues bill in return for a promise of future support
Logrolling