American Gov. Ch. 10 Vocab

Front 1

bicameral congress

Back 1

senate & house of representatives

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elastic clause

Back 2

(necessary7 proper clause)allowed government to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution for foregoing powers

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authorization

Back 3

bill that states maximum amount of money available

Front 4

appropriations

Back 4

actual amount available in a fiscal year for each program that it has authorized

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majority

Back 5

party that wins the most representatives in a legislative election

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minority

Back 6

other party other tht majority

Front 7

speaker of the house

Back 7

most important leadership position in the house.

Front 8

majority leader

Back 8

responsible for scheduling bills and for rounding up votes for bills the party favors.

Front 9

minority leader

Back 9

spokesperson for the minority party, and ususally steps into the position of Speaker when and if his or her party gains a majority in the House.

Front 10

party whips

Back 10

serve as go-betweens for the members and the leadership.

Front 11

president of the Senate

Back 11

the vice-president of the United States.

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president pro tempore

Back 12

the most senior member in the party. The official chair, but has no real power.

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majority leader of the Senate

Back 13

most influential person in the Senate and has the right to be the first senator heard on the floor.

Front 14

minority leader of the Senate

Back 14

geneally only has as much say as the majority leader is willing to allow.

Front 15

Party whip of the Senate

Back 15

serve much the same functions as they serve in the House.

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pigeonhold

Back 16

forgotten for weeks or forever, and never make it out of committee.

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marked up

Back 17

changed or rewritten bills.

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seniority system

Back 18

the member with the longest continuous service on the committee was placed automatically in the chairmanship.

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closed rule

Back 19

sets strict time limits on debates and forbids amendments from the floor, except those from the presenting committee.

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open rule

Back 20

permits amendments and often has less strict time limits, allowing for input from other members.

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caucuses

Back 21

grouping of members of the Congress sharing the same interests or points of view.

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incumbents

Back 22

those who already hold the office, with secure seats.

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franking privilege

Back 23

enjoy free mailings.

Front 24

malapportionment

Back 24

For many years states often drew districts of unequal sizes and populations.

Front 25

Wesberry v. Sanders

Back 25

The Court ordered that districts be drawn so that one person's vote would be as equal as possible to another (the "one man one vote" decision).

Front 26

gerrymandering

Back 26

Originally meant to give one political party an advantage over the other.

Front 27

minority/majority districting

Back 27

Rearranging districts to allow a minority representative to be elected, is just as controversial as the old style party.

Front 28

Shaw v. Reno

Back 28

The plaintiffs charging the Justice Department with reverse discrimination based on the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Front 29

Easley v. Cromartie

Back 29

The Court ruled that race may be a factor in redistricting, but not the "dominant and controlling" one.

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simple resolution

Back 30

passed by either the House or the Senate, and ususally establishes rules, regulations, or practices that do not have the force of law.

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oncurrent resolution

Back 31

comes from both house, and often settles housekeeping and procedural matters that affect both houses.

Front 32

Joint resolution

Back 32

requires the approval of both houses and the signature of the president, and is essentially the same as a law.

Front 33

discharge petition

Back 33

may be sined by 218 members to bring it to the floor, but the vast majority of bills are referred to the floor only after committee recommendation.

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Committee of the whole

Back 34

sits on the floor, but is directed by the chairman of the sponsoring committee.

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germane

Back 35

If amendments are allowed, the must be relevant to the topic of the bill.

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filibuster

Back 36

the practice of talking a bill to death.

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cloture

Back 37

A filibuster may be stopped by a cloture, in which threefifths of the entire Senate membership must vote to stop debate.

Front 38

Christmas-tree bill

Back 38

A bill with many riders is known as a Christmas-tree bill, and usually occurs because individual senators are trying to attach their favorite ideas or benefits to their states.

Front 39

conference committee

Back 39

when the house and the senate cannot resolve similar bills through informal agreements, the two versions of the bill must go to conference committee.

Front 40

pocket veto

Back 40

If the president receives a bill within ten days of the adjournment of the congressional session, he may simply not respond and the bill will die.

Front 41

pork

Back 41

refer to benefits for their districts, and bills that give those benefits to constituents in hope of gaining their votes were called pork barrel legislation.

Front 42

2005 Consolidated
Appropriation Act

Back 42

which funded about 11,000 projects, from building a Civil War Theme Park, renovating and building museums and health care facilities, constructing several different halls of fams and funding community swimming pools and parking garages.

Front 43

Logrolling

Back 43

occurs when a member of Congress supports another member's pet project in return for support for his or her own project.

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pork barrel legislation

Back 44

bills may be passed for frivolous reasons.

Front 45

term limits

Back 45

Supporters believe that popular control of Congress has weakened and that members may become dictatorial or unresponsive to their constituents.