ap gov unit 3 congress vocab

A group of members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic.

• Congressional caucuses

Congressmen/women representing their constituents by mirroring their personal and political characteristics.

• Descriptive representation

Congressmen/women representing the interests of groups.

• Substantive representation

Simple rule for selecting committee chair. The member who had served the longest and whose party controlled the chamber became chair. This was in effect until 1970s.

• Seniority system

Congress’s monitoring of the bureaucracy and its administration of policy.

• Oversight

Party leaders who work with majority or minority leaders to count votes beforehand and lean on waverers whose votes are crucial to a bill.

• Whips

Leads minority party in the House of Representatives or Senate.

• Minority leader

Claiming such things as increased spending in states due to pork barrel spending or providing help for their constituents for their own credit to help with reelection or support.

• Credit claiming

Elected by their committee members and provide leadership for committee activities.

• Committee chairs

Committee that works out compromise between differing House and Senate versions of a bill.

Permanent congressional committees that handle legislation.

Congressional committees on a few subject matter areas with membership drawn from both houses.

Congressional committees appointed for a specific purpose.

An Office mandated by the Constitution. Chosen by the majority party in the House. Second in line to succeed to the presidency.

A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation try to talk the bill to death; unlimited debate.

To stop a filibuster; takes sixty senators to do this.

Principal partisan ally of the Speaker of the House.

A legislature divided into two houses. Nebraska is the only exception.

An institution unique to the House of Representatives that reviews all bills coming from the House committee before they go before the full House.

Activities of members of Congress that help their constituents as individuals.

List of federal projects, grants, and contracts available to places in a congressional district; often excessive spending.

Those elected officials already holding office.

Four times larger than Senate; more institutionalized, more hierarchical; 435 Members; voice of the people.

There to protect elite interests; less disciplined; 100 members.

Proposed law, drafted in legal language.

Communication by someone other than a citizen acting on his own behalf directed to a governmental decision maker with hope of influencing his decision.

Redrawing district lines to favor one party at the expense of the other.

A person who authorizes another to act in his or her behalf, as a voter in a district represented by an elected official.

Bills that are debated, amended, or changed in Congressional committees or subcommittees.