Gov Test # 4

Front 1

factors that contribute to the voting patterns of congress

Back 1

1)constituents views: people back home
2)Party views
3)Personal views

Front 2

bicameral (two-house) Congress

Back 2

the senate and the house of representatives.

Front 3

original voting in constitution

Back 3

house was voted on directly and senate was chosen by legislatures of that state. House based on population and two senators per state

Front 4

17th amendment

Back 4

direct election of senators

Front 5

representative requirements

Back 5

25 years old
seven year citizen of the US
citizen of state represented

Front 6

senator requirements

Back 6

six year term
30 years old
nine years a citizen
citzen of state represented

Front 7

Constituional powers

Back 7

-lay and collect taxes, duties, imports and excises
-borrow money
-regulate commerce with foreign nations among the stats
-to establish rules for naturalization and bankruptcy
-to coin money
-to fix the standard of weights and measures
-to estabish a post office and post roads
-to issue patents and copyrights
-to creat courts (other than the supreme court)
-to define and punish piracies
-to declare war
-to raise and support an army and navy
-to exercise exclusive legislative powers over the DC and other federal facilities
-ELASTIC CLAUSE

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elastic clause

Back 8

necessary and proper: alls the gov to make all laws which shall be necessary

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exclusive rights for House

Back 9

Revenue bills
impeachment power (can also make the charge not the trial)

Front 10

exclusive rights of senate

Back 10

-Major presidential appointments
-treaties with other nations

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House

Back 11

-initiates all revenue bills
-initials impeachment procedures and passes articles of impeachments
-two year terms
-425 memebers (appointed by population)
-Members at least 25 years of age, 7 years a citizen

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Senate

Back 12

-must comfirm many major presidential appointments
-tries impeachment charges against officials
-six year terms (onethir up for reelection every two years
-100 memebers (two from each state)
-senators at least 30
-approves treaties

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Oversight of the budget

Back 13

congress reviews and restricts the annual buget prepared by executive brance.
-approbriation can only be set by congress: the actual amount available in a fiscal year

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investigation

Back 14

congress can investigate issues that warrant study.

Front 15

Speaker of the house

Back 15

most important position in the house
(provieded for by the constitution)
-chooses candidate by majority party
-has typically held other leadership positions and is a senior member of the party.

Front 16

duty of speaker

Back 16

-recognizing members who wish to speak
-ruling on questions of parlimentary procedure
-appointing members to select and conference committees
-directing business on the floor
-exercising poltical and behind-the-scenes influence
-appointing members of the committees who appoint memebers to standing committees
-excersising substantial control over which bills get assigned to which committees
-appointing party's legislative leaders

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Majority leader

Back 17

speakers most important colleague
-resposible for scheduling bills and rounding up votes for bills the party favors

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minority leader

Back 18

spokes person for the minority party
-steps into the position of speaker when and if his or her party gains a majority in the house

Front 19

party whips

Back 19

serve as go-between for the members and the leadership. they inform memebers when important bills will come up for vote, do nosecounts for the leadership and pressure memebers to support the leadership

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(senate)
President of the senate

Back 20

vice president of the US. can only vote in case of a tie and seldom attends sentate sessions.

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president pro tempore

Back 21

senior member in the party.
The official chair, the job of presiding over the senate is ususally given to a junior senitor

Front 22

real leaders of the senate

Back 22

majority leader and minority leader

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majority leader

Back 23

the right to be first senator heard on the floor. determines the senates agenda and usually has much to say about committee assignments.
(minoity leader does not have a lot of say)

Front 24

party whips

Back 24

same as in house

Front 25

4 types of committees

Back 25

standing, select, joint, and conference

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standing committes

Back 26

-hadel bills in different policy areads
-usually long lasting

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select committees

Back 27

-ususally temporary
--formed for a specific purpose (sometimes become standing committees)

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Joint committee

Back 28

same purpose as select committees, but they consist of members from both house and senate

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conference committees

Back 29

formed to hammer out differences between house and senate versions of similar bills.

Front 30

pigeonholded

Back 30

bills are forgotten for weeks and forever

Front 31

Steering committee

Back 31

makes committee assignments (within each party of the senate)

Front 32

The rules committee in the house of prepresentatives

Back 32

close rule
open rule

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close rule

Back 33

gag rule. 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 34

amendments has less strict time limits

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caucuses

Back 35

groupings of members of congress sharing the same interests or points of view
-goal is to shape the agenda of the Congress which they do by elevating their issues or interests to a prominent place in the daily workings of congress

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who is in congress

Back 36

-90% male
-well educated
-upper-middle or upper income backgrouds (most)
-most are protestants
-most are white
-average age is 60 for senators and 55 for representatives
40% are lawyers

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franking privledge

Back 37

more experiences with campaigning

Front 38

malappoirtionment

Back 38

Wesberry v Sanders:

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wesberry v sanders

Back 39

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

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gerrymandering

Back 40

originally meant to give one political party an advantage over the over. District boundaries are drawn in strange ways in order to make it easy for one candidate for on party to win election in that district.

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continuation of gerrymandering/ minority/majority districting

Back 41

rearranging the districts to allow a minority representative to be elected

Front 42

Shaw v reno

Back 42

plaintiffs charged justice department with reverse discrimination based on the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. the court allowed the district lines to be redrawn according to Justice department standards

Front 43

Easley v cromartie

Back 43

racial gerrymandering.
race may be a factor in redistricting ut not the dominate and controlling one

Front 44

making a law

Back 44

idea- can be formed by almost anyone
introduction of a bill
bills in committee
calendars
(house: Rules Committee)
floor debate
voting
conference committee action
presidetial action

Front 45

introduction of a bill

Back 45

must be introduced in house and senate. any memeber of house can hand a bill to the clerk or drop it in a hopper
in senate the presiding officer must recognize the memeber and annouse the bill's introduction
house bills are H.R.
senate bills are S
if a bill is not passed by both houses and signed by the president within the life of one congress, it is dead and must be presidented again at another point

Front 46

bills in committee

Back 46

after introduction, a bill is referred to committtee
most bills die in committee.

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discharge petition

Back 47

218 memebers of house to bring a bill to the floor but this ususally doesnt happen.. ususally bills are referred to the floor only after committee recommendation

Front 48

calenders

Back 48

for a bills to come before either hosue it must be first placed on a calener (five in the house and two in the senate

Front 49

House calenders

Back 49

Union Calender: bills to raise revenue or spend money
House Calender: nonmoney bills of major importance
private calender: private bills that do not affect the general welfare
consent calender- noncontroversial bills
discharge calender- discharge petitions

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senate calender

Back 50

executive calender: presidential nominations, proposed treaties
calender of business: all legislation

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Rules committee

Back 51

before it can go to the floor in the house of representatives, it must first go to the rules comittee that sets time limited and amendment regulations for debate. bills in senate go straight from committee to floor

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Floor debate

Back 52

important bills must be referred to comittee of the whole but is directed by the chairman of the sponsoring committee. sometimes bills are significatly altered, but usually the bills goes to the full floor, where the speaker resides, and debate is guided by more formal ruless.
senators mayb speak for as long as they wish which can lead to a filibuster (practice of talking a bill to death)
a flibuster can only be stopped by a cloture (3/5 senate votes to stop debate)
no limit exists on amendment, so riders occur. This is known as a christmas -tree bill

Front 53

Voting

Back 53

(more formal in the house than in the senate)
HOUSE
Teller vote: members file past the clerk, first the yeas and then the nays
Voice vote- simply shout yea or nay
division vote- members stand to be counted
roll call vote- people answer yea or nay to their names. (can also be 1/5 of house membership)
electronic voting- each memeber inserts a plastic card in a slot to record his or her vote

SENATE
votes in the same way but does not have electronic voting

Front 54

Conference Comittee action

Back 54

if bill is not approved by both houses, it must begin again. if one is passsed by one house and not the other, it dies
when senate cannot resolve