final exam Flashcards
what is congress’ role in the governing process?
lawmaking
If the U.S. House of Representatives chooses to impeach a president, who conducts the trial?
U.S. Senate, Chief Justice Preceding
what is the size of the current House/Senate?
House: 435 members
Senate:100 members
How long are the members of the senate elected for?
6 years
- What are the enumerated powers of Congress as listed in Article I, Section 8?
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like
- What are the different committees?
-Standing Committee- A permanent committee in Congress
-Select Committee- A temporary committee that is formed usually for some sort of investigation or fact finding purpose, can become a permanent committee if ongoing issue.
-Joint Committee- Committee made up of members from the House and Senate
-Conference Committee- A temporary committee made up of members of both the House and Senate to settle the differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. This bill is then referred to each house for passage. *Type of Joint Committee ** Purpose is to merge two different versions of a bills into one******
- The idea that representatives ought to “Do what I tell them to do” is an example of what kind of model?
Delegate Theory of Representation
- How can the Senate end a filibuster?
cloture
- A bill has been approved in the House and Senate, albeit in slightly different versions, goes to what committee?
Conference Committee
- The trading of votes between members of Congress so that each gets the legislation he or she wants is called what?
Logrolling (reciprocity)
- What are the term limits for state legislators? (book is outdated on this point)
Assembly- 3 terms (Terms are 2 years so a total of 6 years)
Senate-2 terms (4 year terms so a total of 8 years)
- What is the current number of state senators/assembly members we have in California?
Senate- 40
Assymbly-80
- Which elected official in California has a role in the state senate similar to the Vice President’s role in the U.S. Senate?
President Pro Tempore
- How many individuals does a single California state senator represent?
931,000 people
- Which part(s) of Congress has the power to confirm presidential appointees subject to their “advice and consent”?
US Senate
- What does the Whig theory of the presidency hold?
The theory of restrained presidential powers; the idea that presidents should only use the powers explicitly granted in the Constitution. Under this approach Congress, not the president, would lead the policy process
- What is the formal staff structure of the White House called?
EOP (Executive Office of the President)
- Congress authorized the formal impeachment of what president in the 1800s?
Andrew Johnson (Bill Clinton, Both impeached, never removed from office)
- What is Heclo’s “the illusion of presidential government”?
The perception that the president is in charge of the national government
- How did Theodore Roosevelt change the way we think about the presidency?
Stewardship Theory-a strong president that is limited not by what the Constitutionallows, but by what it prohibits
