AP GOV Ch 9 Vocab

Advise & Consent

• in Article ll, S2: describes the powers of the Pres, including the power to make treaties & appoint officials w/the approval of the Senate

  • Allows senators to recommend/reject executive branch appointees

Baker v. Carr (1962)

•  court ruled that Tennessee violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment bc districts were not proportionately represented

Bicameral

• legislative body composed of 2 chambers/houses

• designed to provide checks & balances

  • 1 house is based on pop, representing ppl directly

  • 2nd house provides equal representation to states/regions

  • ex: Congress (w/H.o.R & Senate)

Caucuses

• informal groups of like-minded members, began nominating candidates for president

Cloture Rule

• (rule 22), enabled & required a 2/3s supermajority to close up/stop debate on a bill & call for a vote

Committee Chairmen

• senior mem of the majority party in the House/Senate who leads a congressional committee

  • absorb much of the power that the Speaker lost, become the gatekeepers of much legislation for 2 gens

Committee of the Whole

• every rep is a member, more of a state operation in which the House rules are relaxed to speed business

• procedural device in the House where all mems act as a committee to expedite legislation

• by relaxing rules, it requires a smaller quorum (100) & allows for faster debate/amendment

Committee on Committees (Republican)

• party-specific group (specifically in the Senate) responsible for assigning fellow party mems to standing committees

Conference Chairman

• party chairperson, takes care of party matters, such as heading the org of party-centered groups in each house

Conference Committees

• created temporarily to iron out differences on bills that passed each house but in slightly diff forms

  • House & Senate mems who reconcile similar bills

Congressional Oversight

• power of Cong. to monitor, review & supervise fed agencies, programs & policy implementation by the executive branch

Constituent Services

• direct assistance provided by mems of Con. & their staff to constituents (voters in their district/state)

  • ex: addressing a senior citizen’s Medicare concern/arranging a tour of the Capitol for a visiting constituent

Continuous Body

• refers to the Senate, where all seats are never up for election at the same time. Bc only ⅓ of senators are elected every 2 yrs

Discharge Petition

• procedure requiring 218 signatures (a majority), that forces a bill out of a committee that has failed to report it 

• allows rank-and-file mems to bypass committee chairs & House leadership to bring a bill directly to the floor for a vote, preventing a bill from being killed by inaction

Earmarks

•  provision in a spending bill directing fed funds to a specific project. location/entity

Expressed Powers

• congressional powers expressly stated in the Constit

Filibuster

• lengthy speech to delay action on a bill

Floor Leaders

• (minority & majority leaders), lead debate among their party & guide the discussion from their side of the aisle

  • first recognized in debate & became spokespersons for the party in press conferences & in interviews on Sunday talk shows

Franking Privilege

• free use of the mail w/ a “frank”/signature, facilitates communication w/constituents & allows mems to take credit for their activity

Gerrymandering

•  illogical district lines drawn to give the advantage to one party

House Judiciary Committee

• drafts crime bills that define illegal behavior & outline appropriate punishments

  • handles impeachments

House Ways & Means Committee

• exclusive to the house, determines tax policy & decides the details first of when raising/lowering income taxes

Implied Powers

• ability to make the laws necessary to carry out its expressed powers

Incumbency

• current officeholder seeking reelection to the position they alr hold, often win over 90% of congressional races due to name/face recognition.

Joint Committees

• members from the House & Senate that address a long-term issue/program

Marginal Seats

• legislative district/constituency won by a small, slim margin of votes in a prev election

Markup Session

• process by which a bill is amended

Multiple Referral

• where a single bill is assigned to multiple committees simultaneously/sequentially for study & revision

Non-Germane Amendments

• provisions added to a bill in the Senate that are irrelevant to the og subject matter

Omnibus Bill

• single, massive piece of legislation that packages multiple, often unrelated, bills/issues into 1, requiring a single “all-or-nothing” vote

Policy & Steering Committee (Democrats)

• party-specific groups (House & Senate) responsible for assigning members to standing committees, setting legislative agendas & advising leadership.

Pork Barrel Spending

• allocate fed funds to specific, localized projects, often bypassing standard review processes to benefit a mems home district/state

President Pro Tempore

• temporary pres 

  - “pro tem” is the most senior mem in the majority party

Quorum

• the required # in attendance to do business, which the Constit. defines as a simple majority

Reapportionment

•  distribution, of US congressional seats according to changes in the census figures

Redistricting

• process of redrawing electoral district boundaries, typically every 10 yrs following the US Census, to reflect pop shifts & ensure districts remain equal in pop

  • the party in power in the state legis. ultimately determines the new statewide map of congressional districts & does so to benefit the party in the following election

Representative (Delegate) Model

• citizens elect officials to make policy decisions on their behalf

Riders

• Congress adds additional points that ride onto an often unrelated law, to benefit their own agendas/programs, or to enhance the political chances of the bill

Rules Committee

• assigns bills to the appropriate standing committees, determines which bills are scheduled for debate & decides when votes take place

Safe Seats

• districts in which a party consistently tends to win by more than 55% of the vote

Select Committees

• investigates scandals (Watergate/Iran-Contra) & issues to determine if further congressional action is necessary

Sequential Referral

• Speaker of the House/presiding officer sends a bill to multiple committees in a specific order

Seventeenth Amendment

• established the direct election of US senators in each state

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

• established that congressional districts cannot be drawn predominantly based on race

  • the court ruled that bizarrely shaped, race-conscious districts violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

Sponsor

• mem who introduces a bill, presents it, the bill is officially numbered

Standing Committee

• permanent & cover a particular subject

• chaired by a senior experienced mem in the majority party

  • Ex:

  • House Energy & Commerce Committee - authority on utilities/gasoline

  • Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure - oversees the creation & maintenance of US highways

Term Limits

• limit the # of terms an incumbent may serve

Trustee Model

• elected officials use their own best judgment, expertise & conscience to make policy decisions

Twenty-Seventh Amendment

• 1992, prevents any pay raises from taking effect until the following Congress

Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)

• voters pointed to the state’s malapportioned congressional districts

  • court came to the same conclusion as Baker v. Carr

• establishing that federal congressional districts must be roughly equal in population, upholding the "one person, one vote" principle. The 6-3 ruling required states to redraw districts to ensure equal representation, ruling that population imbalances violate Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution. 

Whip

• deputy floor leader, in charge of party discipline & keeps the tally of votes among their party mems, which aids in determining the optimum time for a vote