Leg Reg Flashcards
What are the 3 major perspectives in lawmaking, and what are the actors?
Courts (judges), legislature (legislators), agencies (administrators)
What is the judge’s role in the lawmaking process?
Interpret the laws in a reactive way to ensure predictability in the law
What is a legislator’s role in the lawmaking process?
Create laws by considering proactive factors to solve problems for the electorate
What is an administrator’s role in the lawmaking process?
Implement rules and regulations to carry out a statute’s goals by considering proactive factors affecting citizens
What is the process where each house of Congress tries to agree on a final text?
Reconciliation
Vetogate?
Any hurdle in the lawmaking process that a bill must surpass to move forward
What are major vetogates?
Committee referral and consideration; Rules Committee (House); germaneness rules; unanimous consent agreements (Senate); filibuster (Senate); Presidential veto; bicameralism
What does the House Rules Committee do?
Sets the agenda/rules on how the House will debate the bill
What is a filibuster and how can Senators overcome one?
Filibuster is the process of stalling a vote in the Senate by talking a bill to death; can be overcome by 60 votes of cloture
What is bicameralism?
The principle that Congress is divided into two houses and each must approve of congressional actions through a bill to enact laws
What are the 4 structural limits on Congressional authority?
Authority from the Constitution, bicameralism, Presentment Clause, representation
What is the Presentment Clause?
The principle that Congress must present a single approved bill to the President for signature before taking affect
What are the Vesting clauses?
Clauses that introduce each branch of government and list their respective powers
What is the Incompatability clause?
Prevents members of Congress from sitting in the Executive branch (separation of powers)
What is the difference between formalists and functionalists?
Formalists: strict adherence to separation of powers with little overlapping between the branches
Functionalists: concurrent branch power acceptable as long as intervention is reasonably necessary
What is the non-delegation doctrine?
Congress cannot transfer its legislative powers to another branch without an intelligible principle, “some guidance and reasoning for why the power is being delegated”
What are some legislative mechanisms to control agencies?
Pass detailed legislation with clear instructions, legislative oversight, control over appointment of administrators, power of the purse appropriations, design of the agency, legislative veto
What is a legislative veto?
Any mechanism rendering agency decisions or action subject to some further form of legislative review/control
What decision did Chadha make on legislative vetoes?
Congress cannot circumvent the entire legislative process when dealing with legislative manners
What is an agency?
A regulatory body established by the legislature to set standards in a specific field
What are the President’s “Take Care” duties?
He has the duty to take care that Congress’s laws are faithfully executed by not breaching any law or creating new laws
What is an executive order?
Written directives through which the President can shape policy
What is a limitation on an executive order?
Executive orders must stem through power from a statute or power from the Constitution
What is the general rule for Presedential removal power?
Congress cannot limit the President’s removal authority over purely executive officers (Myers), but Congress can limit quasi-judicial and legislative officers (Humphrey’s) and inferior officer removal, as long as all power remains in the executive head of the officer (Morrison) , and Congress cannot impose two levels of removal protection against the President (Free Enterprise)
