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AP gov congress
RAPTORJESUS
Question | Answer |
---|---|
apportionment | The proportional process of allotting congressional seats to each state following the decennial census |
redistricting | the redrawing of congressional districts to reflect increases or decreases in seats allotted to the states, as well as population shifts within a state |
bill | a proposed law |
speaker of the house | the only officer of the house of representatives specifically mentioned in the constitution; elected at the beginning of each new congress by the entire house; traditionally a member of the majority part |
majority party | the political party in each house of the congress with the most members |
minority part | the political party in each house of congress with second most members |
party caucus (conference) | a formal gathering of all party members |
majority leader | the elected leader of the party controlling the most seats in the house of representatives or the senates; is the second in authority to the speaker of the house and in the senate is regarded as its most powerful member |
minority leader | the elected leader of the party with the second highest number of elected representatives in the house of representatives or the senate |
whip | one of several representatives who keep close contract with all members and take nose counts on key cotes, prepare summaries of bills, and in general act as communication links within the party |
standing committee | committee to which proposed bills are referred |
joint committee | includes members from both houses of congress; conducts investigations or special studies |
conference committee | joint committee created to iron out differences between senate and house versions of a specific piece of legislation |
select (or special ) committee | temporary committee appointed for specific purpose, such as conducting a special investigation or study |
discharge petition | petition that gives a majority of the house the authority to bring an issue to the floor in the face of committee inaction |
pork | legislation that allows representatives to bring home the bacon to their districts in the form of public works programs, military bases, or other programs designed to benefit their districts directly |
seniority | time of continuous service on a committee |
incumbency | the fact that being in office helps a person stay in office because of a variety of benefits that go with the position |
trustee | role played by elected representatives who listen to constituents' opinions and then use their best judgment to make final decisions |
delegate | role played by elected representatives who vote the way their constituents would want them to regardless of their own opinion |
politico | role played by elected representatives who act as trustees or as delegates, depending on the issue |
divided government | the political condition in which different political parties control the white house and congress |
logrolling | vote trading; voting yea to support a colleague's bill in return for a promise of future support |
hold | a tactic by which a senator asks to be informed before a particular bill is brought to the floor. This stops the bill from coming to the floor until the hold is removed |
filibuster | a formal way of halting action on a bill by means of long speeches or unlimited debate in the senate |
cloture | mechanism requiring sixty senators to vote to cut off debate |
veto | formal constitutional authority of the president to reject bills passed by both houses of the legislative body, thus preventing their becoming law without further congressional activity |
pocket veto | if congress adjourns during the ten days the president has to consider a bill passed by both houses of congress, without the presidents signature, the bill is considered vetoed |
oversight | congressional review of the activities of an agency, department or office |
war powers act | passed by congress in 1973; the president is limited in the deployment of troops overseas to a sixty day period in peacetime unless congress explicitly gives its approval for a longer period |
senatorial courtesy | a process by which presidents, when selecting district court judges, defer to the senator in whose state the vacancy occurs |