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Chapter 10 Ap Gov
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| bicameral | any legislative body that consists of two separate chambers or houses; in the United States, the Senate represents 50 statewide voter constituencies, and the House of Representatives represents voters in 435 seperate districts. |
| power of the purse | Congress's exclusive constitutional power to authorize expeditures by all agencies of the federal government. |
| oversight | Congressional monitoring of the activaties of executive branch agencies to determine if the laws are being faithfuly executed. |
| advice and consent | The constituional power of the U.S. Senate to reject or ratify (by a two-thirds vote) treaties made by the president. |
| confirmation | The constitutionally required consent of the senate to appointments of high-level executive officials by the president and appointments of the federal judges. |
| congressional hearings | Congressional committee sessions in which members listen to witnesses who provide information and opinions on matters of interest to the committee, including pending legislation. |
| congressional investigation | Congressional committee hearings on alleged misdeeds or scandals. |
| apportionment | The allocation of legislaative seats to jurisdictions based on population. Seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are apportioned to the states on the basis of their population after every ten-year census |
| malapportionment | Unequal numbers of people in legislative districts resulting in inequality of voter representation. |
| redistricting | Drawing of legislative district boundary lines following each ten-year census. |
| gerrymandering | Drawing district boundary lines for political advantage. |
| splintering | Redistricting in which a strong minority is divided up and diluted to prevent it from electing a representative. |
| packing | Redustricting in which partisan voters are concentrated in a single district, "wasting" their majority vote and allowing the opposition to win by modest majorities in other districts. |
| affirmative racial gerrymandering | Drawing district boundary lines to maximize minority representation. |
| incumbent gerrymandering | Drawing legislative district boundaries to advantage incumbent legislators. |
| open seat | Seat in a legislature for which no incumbent is running for reelection. |
| safe seat | Legislative district in which the incumbent regularly wins by a large margin of the vote. |
| turnover | Replacement of members of Congress by retirement or resignation, by reapportionment, or (more rarely) by electoral defeat, usually expressed as a percentage of members newly elected. |
| Government Accountability Office | The GAO Web site provides the latest reports evaluating government programs and spending. |
| home style | Activities of Congress members specifically directed at their home constituencies. |
| casework | Services performed by legislators or their staff on behalf of individual constituents. |
| pork barreling | Legislation designed to make government benefits, including jobs and projects used as political patronage, flow to a particular district or state. |
| franking privilege | Free mail service afforded members of Congress. |
| Speaker of the House | Presiding officer of the House of Represenatives. |
| majority leader | In the House, the majority-party leader and second in command to the Speaker; in the Senate, the leader of the majority party. |
| minority leader | In both the House and Senate, the leader of the opposition party. |
| whips | In both the House and Senate, the principal assistants to the party leaders and next in command to those leaders. |
| standing committee | Permanent committee of the House or Senate that deals with matters within a specified subject area. |
| ranking minority member | The minority-party committee member with the most seniority. |
| subcommittees | Specialized committees within standing committees; subcommittee recommendations must be approved by the full standing committee before submission to the floor. |
| seniority system | Custom whereby the member of the Congress who served the longest on the majority side of a committee becomes its chair and the member who has served the longest on the minority side becomes its ranking member. |
| drafting a bill | Actual writing of a bill in legal language. |
| markup | line-by-line revision of a bill in committee by editing each phrase and word. |
| discharge petition | Petition signed by at least 218 House members to force a vote on a bill within a committee that opposes it. |
| rule | Stipulation attached to a bill in the House of Representatives that governs its consideration on the floor, including when and for how long it can be debated and how many (if any) amendments may be appended to it. |
| closed rule | Rule that forbids adding any amendments to a bill under consideration by the House. |
| restricted rule | Rule that allows specified amendments to be added to a bill under consideration by the House. |
| open rule | Rule that permits unlimited amendments to a bill under consideration by the House. |
| unanimous consent agreement | Negotiated by the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, it specifies when a bill will be taken up on the floor, what amendments will be considered, and when a vote will be taken. |
| filibuster | Delaying tactic by a senator or group of senators, using the Senate's unlimited debate rule to prevent a vote on a bill. |
| cloture | Vote to end debate-that is, to end a filibuster-which requires a three-fifths vote of the entire membership of the Senate. |
| rider | Amendment to a bill that is not germane to the bill's purposes. |
| roll-call vote | Vote of the full House or Senate at which all members' individual votes are recorded and made public. |
| conference committee | Meeting between represenatatives of the House and Senate to reconcile differences over provisions of a bill passed by both houses. |
| party vote | Majority of Democrats voting in opposition to a majority of Republicans. |
| party unity | Percentage of Democrats and Republicans who stick with their party on party votes. |
| bipartisanship | Agreement by members if bith the Democratic and the Republican parties. |
| divided party government | One party controls the presidency while the other party controls one both houses of Congress. |
| constituency | The votes in a legislator's home district. |
| trustees | Legislators who feel obligated to use their own best judgement in decision making. |
| delegates | Legislators who feel obligated to present the views of their home constituents. |
| logrolling | Bargaining for aggreement among legislators to support each other's favorite bills, epecially projects that primarily benefit individual members and their constituents. |
| gridlock | political stalemate between the executive and legislature branches arising when one branch is controlled by one major political party and the other branch by the other party. |
| censure | Public reprimand for wrongdoing, given to a member standing in the chamber before Congress. |
| congressional session | Each Congress elected in November of even-numbered years meets the following Januray 3 and remains in session for two years. Since the first Congress to meet under the Constitution in 1789, Congresses have beem numbered by session. |
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