Congress Test Flashcards
Members agree in advance to support each other’s bills
Logrolling
The division of legislature into 2 separate assemblies
Bicameral ism
Making additions to bills in exchange for votes
Earmarks
How does the trustee view representation?
What’s best for the country
How does the instructed delegate view representation?
What the constituents want
The role of constituents is
To elect congress; inform them of what they want done
Congress can go back and make sure their legislation is being enforced as they intended
Oversight
Powers of the house
Revenue bills, impeachment powers
Powers of senate
Major presidential appointments, treaties with other nations
Differences between house and senate?
House: members based on population, 2 yr terms
Senate: 2 members per state, 6 yr terms
Refusing to give up the floor so a bill is killed
Filibuster
Parliamentary procedure that allows senate to override a rule by majority rule
Nuclear option
What is the general makeup of congress?
White males with high education. And we’re once lawyers
How do confidantes get on the ballot?
Party identifiers
Between major elections how is voter turn out?
Voter turn out is very low
Allocation of seats in the house to each state after each census
Reapportionment
Rigging the districts so your party had majority
Gerrymandering
Drawing the boundaries of each district
Redistricting
The Supreme Court has ruled that re districting must be based on…
Population and race can take into account but can’t be the main factor
What are the expressed powers of congress?
Impose taxes, make laws, establish post offices, declare war
Allowing congress members to send mail to their constituents for free
Franking privileges
Dye average senate office on Capital Hill employs how many people?
30
Are congress members usually immune from libel or slander during official duties?
Yes
Handles bills in different policy areas
Standing committee
Formed for specific purposes and are usually temporary
Select committee
Consist of members from the House and the Senate
Joint committee
Members from both House and Senate exclusively hammer out differences between House and Senate versions of similar bills
Conference committee
Which committee is most important?
Conference committee
A discharge petition is what?
It comes from the house and the house can force a committee to give up a bill
The seniority system in Congress establishes what?
Who’s on what committee
Who is most powerful in the House?
Speaker of the House
What is the role of the majority leader?
Schedules what bills are heard
What do whips do?
Figure out how each person is planning to vote
Which branch has more control over the agenda?
House
Who is the most powerful member of the Senate?
The Majority Leader
What is pork?
Passing bills to benefit your district
All money bills must come from where?
The House
The biggest predictor of how people will vote is
Their party affiliation
When a bill is referred to a committee what will the committee do?
Fix it and work out its issues
What does the rules committee do?
Set time limits and regulations on debate
What is appropriation? What is an appropriation bill?
Giving money; a bill delegating money for something specific
Ecknowledging that something needs to be done on a particular issue but not doing anything
Continuing resolution
The Speaker of the House has grown since the House has become
More partisan
Congress’ public approval rating rarely goes above
40%
