Two Houses of Congress

Select committee:

Committee that are created (investigate)

continuous body

all of its seats are never up for election at the same time. Senate BAD GOOD Two year bad- doing stuff to get reelected 6 years don't do anything till the last year.

The seniority rule

an unwritten custom, holds that the most important posts will be held by those party members with the longest records of service in Congress .... The head of each committee is often the longest-serving member of the committee from the majority party

committee chairman

are the members who head the standing committees in each chamber of Congress. .....The chairman of each of these permanent committees is chosen from the majority party by the majority party caucus.

Off-year elections

are those congressional elections held between presidential election

singles member district

arrangement, the voters in each district elect one of the State's representatives

whips

assist the floor leaders and serve as a liaison between the party leadership and its dean and file member

Most of the work in Congress is done by:

committees

adjourns

congress, ADJOURNS, or suspends until the next session, each regular session as it sees fit.

Incumbent

current office holder

the party caucus

is a closed meeting of the members of each part in each house which deals with matters of party organization

Joint Committee

is a term in politics that is used to refer to a committee made up of members of both chambers of a bicameral legislature. In other contexts, it refers to a committee with members from more than one organization.

Conference committee

like joint committee... but after bill is created after bill is passed make sure bill is evened out

The general ticket system

no longer in use, provided that all of a State's seats were filled at large

Congressional elections are held

on Tuesday following the first monday in November of each even-numbered year.

Floor leaders

party officers picked for their posts by their party colleagues

Power of HoR

power to impeach formally charge

The Reapportionment Act of 1929

set the permanent size of the House at 435 members and provided for automatic reapportionment

Who can call a special session

Only pres can call special session- a meeting to deal with some emergency situation

prorogue

President has the power to prorogue, or adjourn, a session, when two houses can not agree on a date for adjournment

Congress-Legislative (Bicameral)

Senate (6 years) 100 (more prestige)

Reapportion

Article I of the Constitution directs Congress to reapportion-redistribute-the seats in the House after each decennial census

Bicameral

Great compromise between the Virginia Plan(Big) and the NJ plan(small) Satisfies large and small state

House of reps

Membership(how many people): 435 people Term in office: 2 years Qualification:Formal 1)be at least twenty-five years old; 2) have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years 3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they represent. Members are not required to live in the district they represent, but they traditionally do Informal Qualification: Well known, money, Party affiliation, F/M, Previous position Top 3 Officials: 1. speaker of the house, 2. Majority Leader(Republican), 3. Minority Leader (Democratic)

Senate

Membership(how many people):100 Term in office: 6 years Qualification:Formal each senator must be at least 30 years old, must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years, and must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they seek to represent Informal Qualification: same at HoR 1. Pres Pro tempore, , 2. Majority floor leaders, 3. Minority floor leaders, 4. VP This all creates partisanship(radicals)

Standing Committee:

The consider bills and issues... Regular issues/ day to day..agriculture

The president of the Senate

The job of the president of the Senate is assigned but the constitution to the Vice President The president of the Senate has many of the same duties as Speaker of the House The president pro tempore the leader of the majority party, is elected from the Senate and serves in the Vice Presidents absence.

The speaker of the house

The speaker of the house is the presiding officer of the HoR and the acknowledged leader of the majority party. The speaker;s main duties revolve around presiding over and keeping order in the House The speaker names the members of all select and conference committees and signs all bills and resolutions passed by the House

Gerrymandering

the act of drawing congressional districts to the advantage of the political party that controls the State legislature

Term

the length of time that officials serve after election, as in two or six year term... noon of the 3rd day of January of every odd numbered day

Party officers

the party caucus Floor leaders ....whips

Session

the regular period of time during which congress conducts business