Unit 3: Congress Flashcards
Divided Government
when control of the executive branch and the legislative branch is split between two parties
- Typical to have divided government
- judicial branch isn’t included because their supposed to be unbiased
Filibuster
–debate over a proposed piece of legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a decision being made on the proposal
Hold
\
—–Putting a pause on the debate, saying im gonna filibuster if debate keeps going (Will move on to another bill)
Cloture
a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster
—-Can call for a cloture vote, acc closes debate on the bill, which would prompt a vote
Unanimous Consent
Agreement on any question or matter before the Senate that sets aside a rule of procedure to expedite proceedings
—Would call for it bc Senate has unlimited debate/filibuster and they’d get nothing done —(((an agreement to limit the time of debate(not getting rid of unlimited debate but an informal agreement that everyone wants to go home)
Germaneness Requirement –
“having to do with”, an amendment must address the same subject as the matter being amended
which body has germaneness
house, NOT THE SENATE
–By not having it in the senate, technically the minority and majority party work together to schedule a vote is bc of non-germaness. (If the majority party only schedules their bills, the minority could add their off topic bill as an amendment to the majority’s bill)
Discharge Petition
- A petition used in the House of Representatives that starts a process to force a bill out of committee and to the House floor for a vote.
Standing Committee
- a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee’s subject matter.
Rules Committee
- determines whether, and in what order, to schedule their consideration on the floor of the House.
Closed Rule
- no amendments and very limited debate
Open Rule
- can offer any amendments as long as it applies to House rules and allows debate under the 5-minute rule
Committee of the Whole
- A committee of the people on the floor of the House in which all revenue and most other bills are discussed. closed rule.
Allows for the entire house to meet as a committee, allows for a looser application of the rules to meet
Appropriations Committee -
actually attaches money to a bill, deciding where the money goes, this program is getting
How much money they acc get
Budget committee
- how much we plan to give each category
Omnibus bills
-FAT BILL a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but packages together several measures into one or combines diverse subjects.
In the house this can be problematic
Ways and Means
TAXES- The Committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures
Conference committee -
committee established to resolve differences between two versions of a bill.
Seniority Rule
- the longest someone has been in that committee gets to be the chair of the committee
Mark-up
- taking a pen and marking up the bill
Partisanship
- siding with your party
Polarization
- the extent to which opinions on an issue are opposed
Gridlock
- a situation when there is difficulty passing laws that satisfy the needs of the people.
Pocket veto
- when Congress adjourns during the ten-day period. The president cannot return the bill to Congress
Pork barrel legislation
- getting federal money for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative’s district.
(Advantage of an incumbent bc ur bring federal dollars back to ur district )
Riders/Earmarks
rider- Unpopular provision added to an important bill certain to pass so that it will “ride” through the legislative process
earmark: a discretionary spending appropriations bill that directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process.
Logrolling
- a nice way of saying vote trading (vote for vote)
Roles of a Congressperson
(Dont Trust Purple Peppers) Delegate Trustee Partisan Politico
Delegate
voting on how their constituency WANTS them to vote
Trustee
acting how they feel is in the best interest of the country as a whole
Partisan
votes how their PARTY votes
Politico
do ALL 3 (sometimes they act as a delegate, trustee, and partisan depending on the times)
Congress overall
- bicameral
- 435 reps, 100 senators
- job is to make laws
who has ultimate say in how to regulate elections
Congress (states have power but congress has ultimate say)
reapportionment
the process of dividing up the 435 capped reps to each state
how often does reapportionment happen
every 10 years, after us census
single member district
electing representatives from districts
redistricting
dividing up the state into single member districts(state legislatures in charge of drawing district lines)
gerrymandering
when a state legislature redraws district lines for political purposes (to benefit one party over another or an individual.
two ways to gerry mander
packing and cracking
packing gerrymandering
concentrating the minority party into the smallest number of districts, diluting their influence in other districts.
cracking gerrymandering
dispersing the minority party to weaken their influence across districts.
why is gerrymandering done
- To protect incumbents
- To create safe seats - a district that is predictably won by one party
- To benefit the party in control of the state legislature and give that party more seats in the House.
- To concentrate minorities to create Majority-minority districts. The Voting Rights Act encourages states to create these districts to help ensure that minorities have an opportunity to elect someone who represents their interests. Also to increase the number of minority representatives in the House. BUT it can also be used to pack minorities into a district and dilute their influence in surrounding districts - this is illegal according to the Voting Rights Act.
Effects of gerrymandering
- It does protect incumbents
- There are more minorities in the House of Representatives
- Increased partisanship? Decreased incentive to moderate platform?
- Does it make politics more polarized, less voice for moderates? Or does demographic self-sorting and increased power of party leadership do this?
- Created a system where politicians choose their voters instead of voters electing representatives to represent their interests.
- Less attention paid to constituencies?
does gerrymandering apply to the senate
NO (2 per state, state wide election) but still malapportionment in sentae
one man one vote
the principle that individuals should have equal representation in voting.(equal protection clause and warren cases)
franking
A policy that enables members of Congress to send material through the mail by substituting their facsimile signature (frank) for postage.
Baker v. Carr
-gerry is a political q but courts can interfere if its to ensure equal protection
tennessee baker in city area says that his vote is less weighted than rural farm folk
- carr argues that diff populations of state districts is a POLITICAL QUESTION so courts cannot interfere
- courts overruled carr and said they can interfere in the drawing of districts to ensure that equal protection is enforced (14th amendment)
result: federal courts could hear redistricting cases BECAUSE it was a political question but there’s a constitutional issue(violation of Equal Protection clause) that doesn’t make it purely a political question, makes it a judiciable question
Shaw v. Reno - made racial gerry illegal
NC case - if the redistricting can’t be understood as anything but an effort to divide voters based on race, you could challenge it under equal protection
bad bc:
-classifying ppl j based on race is undesirable in free society
-can make hostile race factions(we dont want race to matter)
said this was unconstitutional bc the intent was to make another intentional majority-minority district (race can not be the predominant factor in drawing districts)
Majority-minority district
- making minorities into one district to give them voice in only that district
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
- states cannot deny rights based on race, sex, whatever
voting rights act 1965
§2 : prohibits states from changing district boundaries that would weaken minority voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice. Changes to district boundaries cannot have a discriminatory effect.
§5 : prohibits states from redistricting that would result in a reduction of the “number of districts in which minority groups can elect their preferred candidates” relative to the current map.
what committees are temporary
joint and special
constituency committees
allow u to serve ur constituents interests(agriculture)
how are committee members chosen
- Whichever party controls a majority of that house will control a majority of that committee
- Party leadership has a lot of influence/say on who’s in each committee
Committee chair chosen by
- Will ALWAYs be a member of the majority party
- Follow seniority rule(the chair of the committee will be a member of the majority party who has had the longest service on THAT committee)
- Doesn’t matter if you’ve been in the house for 30 years
how a bill becomes a law
- Introduced by senator or reps
- Referred to committee
- Mark-up: mark up the bill (clean it up, not official amendments)
- May conduct hearings
- Referred to subcommittee
- Mark-up: mark up the bill
- May conduct hearings - info gatherings, call in experts, get input
- Needs to be passed by majority in committee to be voted out of committee
- GOES TO RULES COMMITTEE - gets put on calendar
- Goes to full floor for the vote
- Need MAJORITY TO PASS A PIECE OF LEGISLATION
GOES TO SENATE AND THROUGH THE WHOLE PROCESS AGAIN
GOES TO CONFERENCE COMMITTEE: reconcile the differences between the house version of the bill and the senate version (made up of ppl from both houses who were instrumental in making the bill, decided by the party leadership in the house and the senate)
Conference BIll goes BACK to the house and senate to the FULL FLOOR:
THEN GOES TO PRESIDENT
Senate takes 51 votes to pass legislation, but u acc need 60(to stop the filibuster)
how many votes for reconciliation bill to pass
51, bc can get around filibuster(so can pres nominations)
