Vocab of the unit Flashcards
Pork barrel spending
When members allocate direct moneys, through earmarks, to projects/ groups within their districts or states in legislation
+eliminating earmarks takes away the incentive to pass bills on time
- putting narrow interests ahead of their voters
Oversight
Efforts to ensure laws of E branch agencies, bureaus, and cabinet departments are in accordance of congressional goals
- hearings or investigations
Constituency
Bodies of voters that elect rep or senator
Redistricting
Process of drawing new lines for voting districts
Gerrymandering
Drawing district borders with a particular interest in mind
Partisan gerrymandering
Drawing district borders with a party’s interest in mind
Majority-minority districts
Drawing districts with the intent of increasing number of minority voters within that electoral district
Malapportionment
Uneven distribution of the population among legislative districts
> made unconstitutional in Reynolds’s v sims
>baker v Carr
Incumbency
- rep or senator running for re-election ‘
- leads to an advantage, incumbency advantage, over first time candidates
Speaker of the House
-highest/most relevant position in the House of Representatives besides the Vice President
- chosen by house members
- chooses who speaks first
Political action committees
Organization that raises money for candidates and campaigns
House majority leader
Assists the speaker, not as relevant as senate majority leader
Whip
Collects information about how individuals will vote
Ensure party unity and discipline
Senate majority leader
Most powerful position
- shapes the legislative agenda
Committee chair
Leader who has authority over committees agenda
Standing committee
Consider legislation and exercise oversight of bureaucratic agencies (funding)
- often split into subcommittees
Joint committees
Contain members of house and senate
- focus public attention on issue, gather info for congress,
Conference committee
Resolves differences between H and S versions of a bill to send to president
-required process by Const.
Special committee
Investigate issues / scandals
Discharge petition
- petition to get a bill out of committee and onto the floor
House rules committee
Powerful committee in house formal debate agenda, and decide if a bill will pass or not
- members chosen by speaker
- determines when a bill will be subject for debate and vote
- how long debate will last
- if a bill can be amendments
Committee of the whole
All members of HOR
- only 100 needed
-last consideration of all complex and controversial legislation
Hold
Delay placed on legislation by senator who objects a bill
- indication of filibuster
Unanimous consent agreement
Agreement in the senate that sets the terms for consideration of a bill
- limit debate time
- permit specified amendments
Filibuster
Senate speaks on and on to delay or postpone action on piece of legislation
Cloture
Procedure which senators can end debate “or filibuster” and and proceed it to action
- 3/5 vote (60)
OMB- office of management and budget
Executive branch of office that assists the president in setting national spending priorities
Entitlement program
A program in which is has mandatory spending to provide benefits to those who qualify for them by law
Mandatory spending
Spending required by existing laws that is already allocated in fed budget
Discretionary spending
Spending for programs and policies at the discretion of congress and president
Budget surplus
Takes in more money than spends
Budget deficit
Spends more money than it takes in
Delegate role
Representative who follows constituents beliefs and wants q
Trustee
Rep who follows their own beliefs because they believe they were entrusted by the constituents
Politico role
Combination of trustee and delegate
Divided government
Happens when president is a different majority party than congress
President formal powers
Chief executive: oversee executive agencies
Chief diplomat: guiding foreign policy and interacting with heads of other nations
Commander in chief:
Legislation leader
Party leader
Informal powers
Executive agreements, executive orders, signing statements
- expansion of informal powers
Executive privilege
Presidents can keep certain conversations, records, and transcripts confidential from congress and the people
Executive agreements
Signed with foreign nations by president without going to senate for approval
- bypasses advice and consent
Signing statements
Written comments issued by presidents while signing a bill,
- include presidents interpretation of the law, and reasoning why he signed it
Executive orders
Policy directed issues by presidents that do not require congressional approval
Bargaining and persuasion
Informal tool used by president to persuade members of congress to support their policy initiatives
Bully pulpit
President goes public to appeal to citizens to pressure other branches of gov to support policy initiatives
Pendleton Act
An act that created the first us civil service commission to draw up a merit system of choosing members of civil service
Political patronage
Filling of administrative positions as a reward for support and loyalty rather than merit
Implementation
The bureaucracy’s role in putting congressional laws into action
- includes bureaucratic discretion and regulation
Bureaucratic discretion
- Bureaucrats have the power to decide how a law is implemented, and what congress meant when it passed a given law
Regulation
The process through which the federal bureaucracy makes rules that have the force of law
- published in the federal register; notify the public about anticipated impact of proposed rules
Bureaucratic adjudication
When the B settles disputes between parties that arise over the implementation of fed laws or determining which individuals are covered under a regulation or program
Process of regulation
- announce a proposed set of rules, and allow interested parties to weigh in (notice and comment)
- notify president or congress about anticipated impact of proposed rules
- all regulations must be published in fed register
- they matter because they carry the same weight as congressional legislation, executive orders, and judicial decisions
Checks over the bureaucracy
P= appoint and remove top players, and shape bureaucratic priorities in proposed fed budget
S= confirm appointees, pass legislation creating or terminating B policy, give budget, conduct hearings
J= restrict scope of action by overturning policy
Checks on president
C- override presidential vetoes, impeachment
J- can overturn executive orders and other presidential orders that violate constution
B- The bureaucracy is so expansive that often, it can act independent form the president
War Powers resolution
Law that restricts power of president to maintain troops in combat for mor than 60 days without congressional authorization
Federalist 78
Federal judiciary would be likely to infringe upon rights and liberties but would serve as a check on other two branches
- lifetime tenure ensures independence- apart form politics (no re-election worries)
Fed 70
One energy, one responsibility/ accountability
Baker v Carr
-Tennessee had not changed its borders in year, which ensued malapportionment between rural and urban districts. Whole state got 1 vote
- Do federal courts have the power to determine cases about the apportionment of population in state legislative districts (political question cuz elections is pol process)
- Yes, because the case deals with the 14 amendment one man one vote doctrine.
Shaw v Reno
North Carolina had created two black minority-majority districts
Shaw said, hell no we wont go: racial gerrymandering is unnecessary in securing black voters, and creates racial discrimination
-Is racial Redistricting discriminating on the base of race a valid constitutional issue under 14 amendment
- yes The Court held that although North Carolina’s reapportionment plan was racially neutral on its face, the resulting district shape was bizarre enough to suggest that it constituted an effort to separate voters into different districts based on race
Marbury v Madison
Do the plaintiffs have a right to receive their commissions?
Can they sue for their commissions in court?
Does the Supreme Court have the authority to order the delivery of their commissions?
Yes, yes, no; because the section of the judiciary act that expanded original jurisdiction of the const. Contradicted the original jurisdiction under Article 3 of the const.
