Legislative branch

Standing committee

a permanent committee in congress

Speaker of the House

the highest ranking member of the majority party in the House of Representatives; third in line to be president after the president and vice president

Filibuster

a delaying tactic, used in the Senate, that involves speechmaking to prevent action on a piece of legislation

Cloture

a rule in the Senate that states that 60 out of the 100 senators must vote to end a filibuster

Hold

Senators have great latitude to slow down Senate business so if the Senate Majority Leader wants to get business done in a relatively reasonable time period, he/she has to get unanimous agreement from senators to move forward on specific business. If just one senator objects ( a hold) to a unanimous consent agreement, then the Majority Leader may stop and find out what the one senator wants in order to get business going, or the Majority Leader may have to go through the time consuming process of cloture. Either way, it wastes time.

Unanimous Consent

A senator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. If no Senator objects, the Senate permits the action, but if any one senator objects, the request is rejected.

Rules Committee

A committee of the United States House of Representatives. Rather than being responsible for a specific area of policy, as most other committees are, it is in charge of determining under what rule other bills will come to the floor.

Party polarization

a situation in which members of Congress cannot/will not come to agreement with each other based solely on their political party’s stance on issues

Gerrymandering

the process by which a political party in the majority manipulates the creation of districts in their state in such a way as to give their party the advantage in elections

Redistricting

the process of creating new districts after the census

Divided government

one political party controls the presidency and another political party controls one or both house of Congress

Lame duck period

the time period between the election and when the newly elected official takes office; during this period the old elected official is still in office and does not have much influence

Politico role of representation

representative uses the trustee role of representation sometimes and the delegate role of representation sometimes

Trustee role of representation

representative votes based what he/she thinks is best and does not follow what the majority of constituents want

Delegate role of representation

representative votes based on what the majority of his/her constituents want

Appropriation

an amount of money devoted to a special purpose; it is usually part of a bill congress is considering

Apportionment

determining the number of members of the House of Representatives that each state will have based on the latest census figures

Bicameral

a two house legislature; the U.S. has the House of Representatives and the Senate

Bill

a proposed law

Conference committee

a temporary committee created to work out differences between the House and Senate versions of a specific piece of legislation

Impeachment

the process in which the House accuses (usually the president) of “high crimes and misdemeanors”; to impeach means to accuse; the second part of the process is the trial in the Senate where the (usually president) is convicted or acquitted by the votes of Senators

Incumbent

the person already in office who is running for re-election

majority leader

the highest ranking member of the majority party in the Senate; the second highest ranking member of the majority party in the House

minority leader

the highest ranking member of the minority party in the Senate and the House

minority party

the party that does not have the majority of members in the House or the Senate

president pro tempore

the longest serving member in the majority party of the Senate, presides over the Senate when the vice president is not there

select committee

a temporary committee created for a special purpose

senatorial courtesy

a practice whereby the Senate will not confirm for a lower federal court judgeship a nominee who is opposed by the senior senator in the president’s party in the nominees state

Seniority

years of consecutive service in the House or Senate or a committee

Standing committee

a permanent committee in congress

War Powers Act

a limitation on the power of the president to send troops to other nations; president must notify congress within 48 hours of sending troops and the troops must come back within 60

Whip

the person in the House or the Senate that encourages members to vote the way the party wants them to vote