Real US Gov uinit 2 quiz vocab

Advice and Consent

Senate's powers where they can advise the president but also some things where they have to agree when appointing a justice.

Apportionment

deciding the amount of representatives each state gets.

Baker v. Carr

court case in 1962 allowing courts to hear redistricting cases using 14th amendment

Bicameral legislature

a legislature with two houses (House of Representatives & Senate)

Bipartisanship

agreement or cooperation between 2 parties

Budget deficit/ surplus

deficit is if government spend more than it gets, surplus if they spend less than they get

Caucus (Congressional)

when like-minded congressmen meet together to speak about a certain issue

Cloture rule

is used to counter filibusters if 60 people agree which will limit the debate, otherwise they will just kill the bill

Committee chair

head of a standing committee

Concurrent resolution

a legislative measure requiring approval of both house and senate but not president to use in chambers

Conference committee

resolve house and senate differences between bills

Congressional oversight

congress's power to look at the activities of the executive branch.

Delegate role

representative who acts in the interests of people who elected him.

Discharge petition

get a bill from a committee who got rid of it if a lot of people in congress want to debate it.

Discretionary spending

spending congress can decide and change year to year

Divided Government

the house, senate, or president are different parties

Earmark

a part of a bill that directs funding to a specific state, local place, project, or organization

Entitlement program

give benefits to certain people who match criteria.

Enumerated powers

powers listed in the constitution of the federal government.

Expressed powers

powers the federal government gets basically enumerated powers

Filibuster

one person on the floor talks forever to kill a bill.

Franking Privilege

ability for congressmen to use their signature as a stamp for letters.

Germane

add only relevant stuff to a bill is a rule in congress but not the senate

Gerrymandering

drawing district lines to benefit a specific group.

Gridlock

stalemate between parties where nothing gets done, in the different bodies of government

Hold

a thing a senator can do if they disagree with the bill so the party leader tries to convince them to agree or add changes to please the senator who placed the hold. It stalls the bill but doesnt kill it.

House Judiciary Committee

standing committee that oversees federal court and other legal matters to make sure justice is being served.

Impeach

the HOR accuses government official of a crime

Implied powers

powers the federal government gets that are not explicitly written in the constitution.

Incumbency

already being in office

Joint committee

a committee with house and senate members

Lame duck period

time between election and inauguration so if the incumbent is leaving they do nothing.

Logrolling

vote trading; if a person votes for their law, they will vote for theirs

Majority Leader

the leader of the political party that controls most of the seats in either the house or senate.

Majority/Minority districts

a type of good gerrymandering where a racial minority has the majority so they can choose a representative to represent them.

Malapportionment

where the population of a district doesn’t have equal representation as other people or districts.

Mandatory spending

government spending required by law and is not affected by annual budget decisions and an example is social security.

Marginal seat/Marginal district

the margin of victory for the district was small so it is very important and competitive so extra attention is paid.

MarkUp Session

where a committee may try to make changes or amendments to a bill before the full chamber sees it.

Minority leader

the leader of the minority party in either the senate or house.

Multiple referral

refers bills to multiple committees at once

National debt

total amount of money government owes to creditor

Omnibus spending bill

has a bunch of things and has to pass because it is the whole budget

Open vs. Closed Rule

Open means anyone can debate, closed means only people from the committee can debate it

Oversight

legislative bodies supervising and monitoring executive activities

Party Polarization

the increasing extremity and ideological differences between the 2 political parties

Politico role

sometimes act as a delegate, sometimes a trustee

Pork Barrel legislation

legislation that brings money to a congressman's specific district, negative connotation

President of the Senate

role held by the vice president that doesn’t play a big part but votes if there is a tie.

President Pro Tempore

presides over the senate while the vice president or president of the senate isn't there which is most of the time so they basically run the senate

Quorum

the minimum number of members required to be there for a congress body to conduct business which has to be a majority for both the house and the senate.

Reapportionment

redistributing seats of the house every 10 years based on the census.

Redistricting

redrawing and recreating districts based on the new census

Rider

a small bill added to an omnibus one that will pass for sure and the others will agree to get your vote.

Rules Committee

decide rules for debate for each bill in the house

Safe seat/Safe district

a district that typically votes to one party so the incumbent always wins.

Select committees

sometimes called a special committee don't consider legislation, they oversee and investigate stuff and are less permanent than standing ones.

Sequential referral

refer bills to committees one after another, not at the same time

Seventeenth Amendment

allows the people to directly elect u.s. senators

Shaw v. Reno

case that found racial gerrymandering to drown out the voice of a race is illegal

Simple resolution

a legislative matter that expresses the opinion of a chamber and is just used internally for the chamber so doesn’t need approval from other branches or bodies.

Speaker of the House

leader of the house and is from the majority party typically.

Sponsor

a member of congress that introduces a bill and takes responsibility to try to get it to pass

Standing committees

permanent committee that is there forever

Swing districts

close contest between 2 parties

Trustee role

vote how they feel is necessary and is for the best even if their voters disagree

Unanimous consent agreement

all 100 senators agree upon how a bill or item of business will be considered

Unified Government

one political party controls all bodies of government

Veto

president kills bill but can get overridden with 2/3s vote but president can do a pocket veto where he doesn’t sign the bill for 10 days and if congress isn’t in session it gets killed but if they are then it just becomes a law.

Ways and Means Committee

a committee that writes legislation for social security, medicare and other entitlement programs.

Whip

someone that gets people of the same party to vote together in the house or senate on issues.