exam final gov

Chief justice

• leads the supreme court

• manages judicial branch

• presiding officer of the court

• nominated by president, life term

House majority leader

• can exercise some agenda control by using a device called “filling the amendment tree,” preempting all opportunities for offering amendments to avoid votes party members would prefer not to cast.

• The formal leader of the party controlling a majority of the seats in the House or the Senate. In the Senate the majority leader is the head of the majority party. In the House the majority leader ranks second in the party hierarchy behind the Speaker.

Interstate Commerce Commission

• In 1887, Congress set up the now-defunct _____ ______ ________ to regulate the railroads in part because any decision made about shipping rates would likely anger some politically potent interest. The Postal Regulatory Commission takes the heat for increases in postage rates

• The first, which swept in during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as government sought to cope with a rapidly expanding national market economy, was regulation of the railroads

at least 30 years old

minimum age for people to be senators

earlier court decisions under English rule

• stare decisis (Latin for “let the decision stand”), directs the lower courts, as well as the Supreme Court itself, to follow established precedent in deciding current cases

  • To the extent that they follow stare decisis, the lower courts find it easier to extend the Supreme Court’s preferences. This, in turn, frees the Court to monitor closely those decisions that fail to follow precedent or are otherwise unresolved

War Powers Act

The law requires the president to inform Congress within forty-eight hours of committing troops abroad in a military action. Moreover, the operation must end within sixty days unless Congress approves an extension.

the 22nd amendment

a limitation on presidents serving only two terms in office

an executive order

• A presidential directive to an executive agency establishing new policies or indicating how an existing policy is to be carried out.

• to change or implement a policy

Senate

• would be chosen by state legislatures, not directly by the voters. The term of office was set at six years, and continuity was ensured by requiring that one-third of the membership stand for election every two years.

• ratifies treaties and confirms presidential appointments of ambassadors. also confirms the president’s nominees to all federal courts and top executive branch positions

• apart of the legislative branch, works with the house of representatives to form Congress

• 100 member

• composed of two members from each state chosen by the state legislature.

House of Representatives

• members are chosen by local voters every two years during even-numbered calendar years

• seats allocated by population and members elected by the citizenry

• apart of the legislative branch, works with the senate to form Congress

• 435 member

• would be “popularly” chosen in biennial elections held in even-numbered years

How many votes is needed to pass the Electoral College for Presidents?

Each state is awarded as many electors as it has members of the House and Senate. The Constitution left it to the states to decide how electors are selected, but the Framers generally and correctly expected that the states would rely on statewide elections. If any candidate fails to receive an absolute majority _____ of the 538 votes in the electoral college the election is thrown into the House of representatives.

270

Standing committees

• those that exist from one Congress to the next unless they are explicitly disbanded

• The House also delegates the task of drafting legislation to them, which are more manageable subsets of members

• of the House and Senate embody Congress’s division of legislative labor

• have fixed jurisdictions (that is, they always deal with the same legislative topics) and stable memberships, both of which facilitate specialization. Once appointed, a member in good standing (that is, one who has not flagrantly annoyed party leaders) can expect to keep the seat unless his or her party suffers large electoral losses.

• A permanent legislative committee specializing in a particular legislative area. Standing committees have stable memberships and stable jurisdictions.

How many standing committes from both chambers?

33-15 in the Senate

48-19 in the House

(2/3) two-thirds

if a president vetoes a bill, the house of representatives and the senate must each pass the vetoes bill by a _______ to allow the bill to become law.

minimum age to be the president

at least 35 years old

log-rolling

a legislative practice in which members of Congress offer reciprocal support to each other’s vote-gaining projects or tax breaks, if one helps the other helps the other out later

government corporation

• typically run by a chief executive officer (CEO) under the supervision of a board of directors or commissioners and chosen in the same manner as members of regulatory commissions

• can buy and sell property, lend and borrow money, and sue or be sued like any other business. Congress, however, may put any constraints it chooses on their organization or activities.

government

• The institutions and procedures through which people are ruled.

• the system, group of people, or governing body that has the authority to run a country, state, or community. Its main jobs are to make and enforce laws, keep order, and provide public services

at least 25 years old

Minimum age for people to be representatives

President

• part of the executive branch

• can assign executive orders

• is commander in chief ( cant declare war) and head of the state (host foreign leaders, welcome ambassadors)

• can veto bills

• two-terms

• use executive agreements to bypass the difficult two-thirds Senate majority required for treaties. (pacts with foreign leaders speed up foreign policy, avoid political blocks and handle global deals.

chairman of the Federal Reserve Board

• nominated by the president

• serves as the public leader of the United States’ central bank

• They help guide the economy by working to keep inflation in check, support job growth, and making sure borrowing and lending stay balanced.

• Each leader serves a four-year term, but they remain on the Federal Reserve Board for a total of 14 years, regardless of their leadership title.

line of succession to the presidency

vice president

Marbury v. Madison

• in which the Court laid claim to the authority to strike down any legislation it deemed unconstitutional.

• which would come to be appreciated for establishing the Court’s “coequal” status among the branches of the American government

• established the principle of judicial review, specifically the power of courts to strike down laws that violate the U.S. Constitution.

White

having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa

direct election of senators by the people

seventeenth amendment 1913

Executive Privilege

• This concept refers to an inherent privacy protection for presidents as they formulate policy. For the first time, in 1974 the Supreme Court affirmed that the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine required that presidents be able to preserve confidentiality, except where presidential malfeasance is being investigated.

• The Supreme Court, for the first time, established that the Constitution’s separation of powers implicitly confers presidents with “_____ _____” protections.

inherent powers

powers not explicitly listen in the U.S. Constitution that the government automatically holds

538

the full amount of votes in the Electoral College

House majority whip

• Majority party official in Congress charged with managing communications between party leaders and members. A minority serves the same purpose

every 10 years

• The federal government conducts the U.S. Decennial Census ______ ___ ____ to count every person living in the country. This count determines reapportionment of congressional seats, redistricting, and the allocation of federal funds.

chief (head) of state

• the presidient

• refers to the President as the ceremonial head of the government. He is the symbol of all the people. In the United States the President also rules over the government.

Merit

• the practice of hiring, promoting, and managing civil service employees based on open competition, relative ability, knowledge, and skills, and political neutrality, rather than political affiliation or personal favoritism

judicial review

• An important issue never quite resolved by the Constitutional Convention was the extent of the Court’s authority to overturn federal laws and executive actions as unconstitutional

• The authority of a court to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional and therefore invalid.

filibuster

• A tactic used in the Senate to halt action on a bill. It involves making long speeches until the majority retreats. Senators, once holding the floor, have unlimited time to speak unless a cloture vote is passed by three-fifths (sixty) of the members.

• hold the floor making endless speeches so that no action can be taken on the bill or anything else

January 20^th

• inauguration day, day president and vice president take their oaths of office

Congress

• composed of the House of representatives and the senate

• legislative branch

• a bicameral legislature

Bicameral

• The practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers that share power

• A legislature composed of two houses or chambers. The U.S. Congress (House and Senate) and every U.S. state legislature (with the exception of Nebraska’s, which is unicameral) are bicameral legislatures.

vice president

• is the presiding officer of the Senate

• shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

Franklin Roosevelt

• did the New Deal to pull the nation out of the depression

• fireside chats

• courtpacking plan - alleviate the overcrowding of federal court dockets by allowing the president to appoint an additional Supreme Court justice for every sitting justice over the age of seventy. (fail)

• executive office of the president

Earmarks

• Money set aside by Congress in the federal budget to pay for projects in the home district of a member of Congress.

• items individual members routinely insert into spending bills or revenue bills providing special benefits to their states, districts, and campaign contributors. Although earmarks account for less than one-half of 1 percent of federal spending, they are easy targets of public criticism

two years

one-third of the Senate’s membership stand for election every ____ ___

secretary

• a high-ranking executive official who leads an executive department, serves as a member of the president's cabinet, and acts as a primary advisor to the president

veto

• the constitutional power of the president to reject a bill passed by Congress, preventing it from becoming a law

joint

• gather information and oversee executive agencies but do not report legislation

• Permanent congressional committees made up of members of both the House and the Senate. _____ committees do not have any legislative authority; they monitor specific activities and compile reports.

15

• granted recently freed, no-longer-three-fifths citizens the right to vote, amendment

• right to vote

attorney general

• The head of the Justice Department. As the nation’s chief legal officer, the attorney general of the United States represents the federal government’s interests in law courts throughout the nation. The attorney general is also the chief law enforcement officer.