Congress Key Terms

Question 0

Caucus (congressional)

Answer 0

An association of members of congress created to advocate a political ideology or a regional, ethnic, or economic interest

Question 1

Bicameral legislature

Answer 1

A lawmaking body made up of two chambers or parts. The US congress is a bicameral legislature composed of a senate and house of representatives

Question 2

Closed rule

Answer 2

An order from the House Rules Commitee in the House of Representatives that sets a time limit on debate and forbids a particular bill from being amended on the legislative floor.

Question 3

Cloture resolution

Answer 3

A rule used by the senate to end or limit debate. Designed to prevent talking a bill to death by filibuster. To pass in the senate three fifths of the entire senate membership or sixty senators must vote for it.

Question 4

Concurrent resolution

Answer 4

An expression if congressional opinion without the force of law that requires the approval of both the house and the senate but mot the president. Used to settle housekeeping and procedural matters that affect both houses.

Question 5

Conference committees

Answer 5

See joint committees

Question 6

Congress

Answer 6

A national legislature composed of elected representatives who do not choose the chief executive

Question 7

Discharge petition

Answer 7

A device by which any member if the house after a committee has had a bill for thirty days, may petition to have it brought to the floor. If a majority if the members agree the bill is discharged from the committee. The discharge petition was designed to prevent a committee from killing a bill by holding it for too long.

Question 8

Division vote

Answer 8

A congressional voting procedure in which members stand and are counted

Question 9

Double tracking

Answer 9

Setting aside a bill against which one or more senators are filibustering so that other legislation can be voted on.

Question 10

Filibuster

Answer 10

An attempt to defeat a bill in the senate by talking indefinitely, thus preventing the senate from taking action on it. From the Spanish filibuster, which means “freebooter” a military

Question 11

Franking privilege

Answer 11

The ability if members of congress to mail letters to their constituents free of charge by substituting their facsimile signature (frank) for postage.

Question 12

Joint committees

Answer 12

Committees on which both representatives and senators serve, an especially important kind of joint committee is the conference committee made up of representatives and senators appointed to resolve differences in the senate and house versions of the same legislation before final passage

Question 13

Joint resolution

Answer 13

A formal expression of congressional opinion expression if congressional opinion that must be approved by both houses of congress and by president. Joint resolutions proposing a constitutional amendment need not be signed by president.

Question 14

Majority leader (floor leader)

Answer 14

The legislative leader elected by party members holding the majority seats in the house of representatives or the senate

Question 15

Minority leader

Answer 15

The legislative leader elected by the party members holding a minority of seats in the house of representatives or the senate

Question 16

Open rule

Answer 16

An order from the house rules committee in the house of representatives that permits a bill to be amended on the legislative floor

Question 17

Parliament

Answer 17

A national legislature composed of elected representatives who choose the chief executive (typically, the prime minister)

Question 18

Party polarization

Answer 18

A vote in which the majority of democratic legislators oppose a majority of republican legislature and vice versa

Question 19

Party vote

Answer 19

There are two measures of such voting. By the stricter measure, a party vote occurs when 90 percent or more of the democrats in either house of congress vote together against 90 percent or more if republicans. A looser measure counts as a party vote any case where at least 50 percent of the democrats vote together against at least 50 percent of the republican vote.

Question 20

Restrictive rule

Answer 20

An order from the House Rules of Committee in the House of Representatives that permits certain kinds of amendments but not others to be made to a bill on the legislative floor.

Question 21

Riders

Answer 21

Amendments on matters unrelated to a bull that are added to an important bull so they will “ride@ to passage through congress. When a bill has many riders, it is called a christmas-tree bill.

Question 22

Roll-call

Answer 22

A congressional voting procedure that consists of members answering “yea” or “nay” to their names. When roll calls were handled orally, it was a time-consuming process in the House. Since 1793, an electronic voting system permits each House member to record his or her vote and learn the total automatically.

Question 23

Runoff Primary

Answer 23

A second primary election held in some states when no candidate received a majority of the votes in the first primary; the runoff is between the two candidates with the most votes. Runoff primaries are common in the South.

Question 24

Select Committees

Answer 24

Congressional committees appointed for a limited time and purpose

Question 25

Simple resolution

Answer 25

An expression of opinion either in the House of Representatives or the senate to settle housekeeping or procedural matters in either body. Such expressions are not signed by the president and do not have force of the law

Question 26

Speaker

Answer 26

The presiding officer of the house of representatives and the leader if his or her party in the house

Question 27

Standing committee

Answer 27

Permanently established legislative committees thar consider and are responsible for legislation within certain subject areas. Examples are the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee

Question 28

Veto

Answer 28

Literally, “I forbid” it refers to the power of a president to disapprove a bill; it may be overridden by a two-thirds vote if each house by congress

Question 29

Voice veto

Answer 29

A congressional voting procedure in which members about “aye” in approval or “no” in disapproval; allows members to vote quickly or anonymously on bills.

Question 30

Whip

Answer 30

A senator or representative who helps the part leader stay informed about what party members are thinking, rounds up members when important votes are to be taken, and attempts to keep a nose count on how the voting on controversial issues is likely to go.