Vocabulary List 11:

Question 1

Define: Those already holding office. In congressional elections, incumbents usually win.

Answer 1

incumbents

Question 2

Define: Activities of members of Congress that help constituents as individuals, particularly by cutting through bureaucratic red tape to get people what they think they have a right to get.

Answer 2

casework

Question 3

Define: Federal projects, grants, and contracts available to state and local governments, businesses, colleges, and other
institutions in a congressional district.

Answer 3

pork barrel

Question 4

Define: A legislature divided into two houses.

Answer 4

bicameral legislature

Question 5

Define: The committee in the House of Representatives that reviews most bills coming from a House committee before they go to the full House.

Answer 5

House Rules Committee

Question 6

Define: A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation use their right to unlimited debate to prevent the Senate from
ever voting on a bill.

Answer 6

filibuster

Question 7

Define: An office mandated by the Constitution.

Answer 7

Speaker of the House

Question 8

Define: The principal partisan ally of the Speaker of the House, or the party’s manager in the Senate.

Answer 8

majority leader

Question 9

Define: Party leaders who work with the majority leader or minority leader to count votes beforehand and lean on waverers whose votes are crucial to a bill favored by the party.

Answer 9

whips

Question 10

Define: The principal leader of the minority party in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.

Answer 10

minority leader

Question 11

Define: Separate subject-matter committees in each house of Congress that handle bills in different policy areas.

Answer 11

standing committee

Question 12

Define: Congressional committees on a few subject-matter areas with membership
drawn from both houses.

Answer 12

joint committee

Question 13

Define: Congressional committees formed
when the Senate and the House pass a particular bill in different forms.

Answer 13

conference committee

Question 14

Define: Congressional committees appointed
for a specific purpose, such as the Watergate investigation.

Answer 14

select committee

Question 15

Define: Congress’s monitoring of the bureaucracy and its administration of policy, performed mainly through hearings.

Answer 15

legislative oversight

Question 16

Define: The most important influencers of the congressional agenda.

Answer 16

committee chairs

Question 17

Define: A simple rule for picking committee chairs, in effect until the 1970s.

Answer 17

seniority system

Question 18

Define: A group of members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic.

Answer 18

caucus ( congressional)

Question 19

Define: A proposed law, drafted in legal language.

Answer 19

bill