Presidency Flash Cards
Divided government
One party controls the White House and another controls one or both houses of congress.
Unified government
The same party controls the White House and both houses of congress.
Gridlock
The inability of the government to act because rival parties control different parts of the government.
Electoral College
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.
Bully Pulpit
The presidents use of his prestige and visibility to guide or enthuse the American public.
Veto Message
A statement the president sends to Congress accompanying a refusal to sign a bill passed by both houses. It indicates the president’s reasons for the veto. A two-thirds vote of both houses overrides the veto. In the United States, the President may veto a bill passed by majorities in both houses of Congress, preventing it from becoming law unless each house then re-passes the bill by a two-thirds majority.
Pocket Veto
One of two ways for a president to disapprove a bill sent to him by Congress. If the president does not sign the bill within ten days of receiving it, and Congress has adjourned within that time, the bill does not become law.
Line-item veto
A special form of veto in which the chief executive has the right to prevent particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislative assembly from becoming law without having to kill all the other parts of the bill at the same time. Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton have all endorsed the idea of granting the President line-item veto powers over appropriations bills as a means of controlling the budget deficit problem, but the President of the United States has only recently acquired a very limited line-item veto power through certain changes in the rules of the House of Representatives and Senate. In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that even this limited form of line-item veto enacted by a simple Congressional majority was unconstitutional because it violates the concept of separation of powers.
Signing Statement
A presidential statement revealing what the president thinks of and how he intends to enforce a new law
Pyramid Structure
A method in which the president organizes his personal staff that has most assistants reporting through a hierarchy to a chief of staff.
Ad-hoc structure
A method in which the president organizes his personal staff that employs task forces, committees, and informal groups of friends dealing directly with him.
Circular Structure
A method in which the president organizes his personal staff that has cabinet secretaries and assistants reporting directly to the president.
Cabinet
By custom, the heads of the fifteen major executive departments who meet to discuss matters with the president. These “secretaries” receive their positions by presidential nomination and confirmation by the Senate. They meet as a group from time to time for the purpose of discussing current policy proposals and advising the chief executive of their recommendations. (Chief executives usually also maintain one or more additional advisory councils that may well be more influential than the more formal cabinet.) They can be removed at the pleasure of the president.
Legislative Veto
A method by which Congress in a law allows either one or both houses to block a proposed executive action. It is frequently used for presidential reorganization plans of the executive branch. These vetoes were declared unconstitutional in INS v. CHADHA 1981.
Impeachment
A form of indictment voted on by the House of Representatives. It can be brought against the president, the vice president, and all “civil officers” of the federal government. To be removed from his or her position, the impeached officer must be convicted by a two-thirds vote of the Senate.
