AP Gov - Chapter 4 (Congress) Vocab

Pork barrel spending

legislation that directs specific funds to projects within districts or states.

Logrolling

trading of votes on legislation by members of Congress to get their earmarks passed into legislation.

Oversight

efforts by Congress to ensure that executive branch agencies, bureaus, and cabinet departments, as well as their officials, are acting legally and in accordance with congressional goals.

Constituency

a body of voters in a given area who elect a representative or senator.

Apportionment

the process of determining the number of representatives for each state using census data.

Redistricting

states' redrawing of boundaries of electoral districts following each census.

Gerrymandering

the intentional use of redistricting to benefit a specific interest or group of voters.

Majority-Minority District

a district in which voters of a minority ethnicity constitute an electoral majority within that electoral district.

Incumbency Advantage

institutional advantages held by those already in office who are trying to fend off challengers in an election.

Speaker of the House

the leader of the House of Representatives, chosen by an election of its members.

House Majority Leader

the person who is the second in command of the House of Representatives.

Whips

the whip collects collect information about how individual members are planning to vote, corralling their support on key votes and setting party strategy in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader

the person who has the most power in the Senate and is the head of the party with the most seats.

Minority Leaders

the head of the party with the second-highest number of seats in Congress, chosen by the party's members.

Political Action Committee (PAC)

an organization that raises money for candidates and campaigns.

Standing Committee

standing committees are where most of the work of Congress gets done. They are permanent and divided by policy area, and members tend to serve on them for multiple terms, developing expertise.

Joint Committee

joint committees contain members of both the House and the Senate. They focus public attention on an issue, gather information for Congress, or help party leaders speed things along in the legislative process.

Conference Committee

a temporary joint committee that resolves differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill, which is required by the Constitution before a president can sign the bill into law.

Select Committee

temporary bodies that are usually called upon to investigate an issue, sometimes in response to a crisis or a scandal.

House Rules Committee

a powerful committee that determines when a bill will be subject to debate and vote on the House floor, how long the debate will last, and whether amendments will be allowed on the floor.

Discharge Petition

a motion filed by a member of Congress to move a bill out of committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.

Filibuster

a tactic through which an individual senator may use the right of unlimited debate to delay a motion or postpone action on a piece of legislation.

Cloture

a procedure through which senators can end a filibuster and proceed to action, provided three-fifths of senators agree to it.

Veto

formal rejection by the president of a bill that has passed both houses of Congress.

Entitlement Programs

entitlement programs provide benefits to those who qualify for them by law. Entitlement programs include Social Security and Medicare, and they consume the bulk of yearly federal spending. Because this spending is "locked in," it is referred to as mandatory spending.

Mandatory Spending

spending required by existing laws that is "locked in" the budget.

Discretionary Spending

spending for programs and policies at the discretion of Congress and the president.

Delegate (role)

the idea that the main duty of a member of Congress is to carry out constituent wishes.

Trustee (role)

the idea that members of Congress should act as trustees, making decisions based on their knowledge and judgment.

Politico (role)

representation where members of Congress balance their choices with the interests of their constituents and parties in making decisions. (mix of delegate and trustee)