Gov Chapter 12

Which of the following is true about the the political advantages of the longer terms in the Senate?

A senator can be insulated from political fallout from things that happen early in his/her term.

Which of the following are similarities between the House and the Senate?

Both propose legislation. Both are elected by popular vote. Both are chambers of Congress.

Which of the following statements about Congress and congressional representatives are true as a result of partisan redistricting?

Congress has become more politically polarized. House members are less likely to compromise with the opposition.

How do the demographics of Congress compare to those of the constituents they serve?

Congress is less diverse.

True or false: Most congressional bills survive committee scrutiny and are voted upon by the House and Senate.

False

True or false: Personal experiences play no role in legislative decision making.

False

True or false: The demographics of Congress are roughly equivalent to those of the American public at large.

False

True or false: The president's position on legislation rarely affects the way members of Congress vote on it.

False

The redrawing of congressional boundaries to benefit an incumbent, a political party, or some other group is called

Gerrymandering

Which of the following describes the state of Supreme Court jurisprudence on the issue of gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is unconstitutional only if it eliminates the minority party's influence statewide.

Which of the following influence agenda setting in Congress?

House and Senate leaders' goals public discourse

Taxation policies start in this chamber This chamber faces more frequent elections

House of Representatives

Which of the following is true of current African American representation in the U.S. Congress?

More African Americans serve in Congress than at any other point.

Which of the following events resulted in an increase in partisan voting?

Republican retake of Congress in 1994 rise of the Tea Party in 2010 Watergate scandal

With whom did the concept of the nuclear option originate?

Richard Nixon

Which of the following are ways new legislation can be introduced in the Senate?

Senators can propose new legislation by offering it as an amendment to an already pending piece of legislation. Senators can submit a written draft of the proposed legislation to the Senate clerk. Senators can announce new legislation in a speech on the Senate floor.

Senators have no limits on the number of terms they can serve.

Senators have longer terms of service.

Why might voting against their constituents' will on a particular issue be less significant for a member of the Senate than for a member of the House?

Senators have longer terms of service.

What factors make members of the House of Representatives reluctant to defy the will of their congressional districts?

Short term lengths make reelection challenging. Smaller districts means House constituencies are often ideologically unified.

What does the president do when executing a pocket veto?

The president waits 10 days for the bill to "die."

True or false: Despite winning a record number of congressional seats in the 2018 midterm election, the proportion of women in Congress is not nearly equal to their proportion in the national population.

True

A procedural move in which a member or members of the Senate speak(s) for an unlimited amount of time on the Senate floor in order to prevent a vote on a bill is known as

a filibuster.

How many signatures does a discharge petition require?

a majority

Which of the following explains a bill and its intent to the full legislative chamber?

a report

What does an ombudsperson do?

acts as a citizens' advocate in dealings with government agencies

Unanimous consent agreements require that ______ agree to the terms of debate on a given piece of legislation.

all senators

Those who pay careful attention to political issues are sometimes referred to as the ____________ public.

attentive

A(n) ______________is a proposed piece of legislation that is considered by Congress.

bill

One consequence of having a congressional "safe seat" is that a House member

can generally be partisan without an unfavorable political outcome.

Interest groups can be a valuable resource to legislators because they

can provide financial and electoral support.

Which of the following activities can benefit an incumbent during reelection by building loyalty with a particular voter by performing a task that the voter cannot complete alone?

casework

Which of the following is a procedural move in the Senate that can end a filibuster?

cloture

In the 2018 midterm elections, in the face of possible candidacies of many female candidates, many congressional incumbents

decided not to seek reelection.

Members of Congress are attentive to the concerns of constituents because constituents

determine whether or not they stay in office.

A(n) petition is a tactic used to extract a bill from a committee in order to have it considered by the entire House.

discharge

Each senator represents his or her state, while House members represent their congressional

districts

The seniority system

does not always mean that the person with the most tenure will be chair.

Congressional oversight is a check on the federal bureaucracy because the bureaucracy is a part of the ______ branch.

executive

A lead committee is the

first committee a bill is referred to.

Which of the following benefits of office are an advantage for incumbents in their campaigns for reelection?

franking privileges free news exposure casework

If the majority of the members of the House of Representatives are Republican, then every committee and subcommittee in the House will

have a majority of Republican members.

In the House of Representatives, a member of a legislator's staff drafts the proposed legislation and the House member puts the bill into the

hopper

A bill must pass both the House and Senate in ______ form(s) before it can be sent to the president.

identical

Which of the following has most hampered the ability of Congress to manage social conflict in recent years?

increased polarization caused by partisan redistricting

Two of the most important influences on congressional elections are

incumbency and redistricting

Donors are more willing to make campaign contributions to

incumbents

What model of representation are legislators most likely to follow in important or high-profile issues?

instructed delegate

Members of Congress might make policy decisions that lead to an endorsement from which external source?

interest groups

Which of the following accurately describe the position of Speaker of the House?

leader of his or her party in the House second in line of presidential succession an elected member of the House

The House leadership position of whip acts as a liaison between

leadership and party members in the House.

Because congressional districts in the House are often homogeneous, cohesive units, a House member's constituency is

likely to share a fairly unified position on many issues.

If Congressperson A agrees to vote for a defense bill that has funding for a project in Congressperson B's district in exchange for Congressperson B's vote in favor of farming subsidies that benefit Congressperson A's district, the action is referred to as

logrolling.

The Speaker of the House is effectively chosen by the

majority party.

With regard to representation, members of Congress

may speak for several constituencies.

If Democrats hold a majority of the seats in the Senate, each committee and subcommittee will have a(n) ______ of Republicans as members.

minority

Political polarization in the Senate is ______ when compared to the House.

not as apparent

Which of the following describe a maneuver exercised by the presiding officer of the Senate that eliminates the possibility of filibusters by subjecting votes on certain matters to a simple majority vote?

nuclear option

Congress has a number of functions other than lawmaking, including

oversight and agenda setting.

Which function is the main responsibility of Congress, which all other functions of Congress are related to?

policy making

Historically, which Senate position has been honorary in nature?

president pro tempore

The process of determining how many House seats each state is allowed as a result of population change since the last census is known as

reapportionment

Which of the following occurs every ten years after the U.S. census and determines how many seats a state receives in the House of Representatives?

reapportionment

The legislative process in both the House and the Senate is

remarkably similar.

After a committee agrees to the wording of a bill, the committee issues a ______ to the full chamber that explains the bill and its intent.

report

Which of the following describes the process by which members of Congress articulate and vote for the position that best reflects the views of their constituents?

representation

House of Representatives Senate

represents population represents states

In the 2018 midterm elections, Latinos

saw marked success in gaining congressional representation.

In 2014, the House formed a ______ committee to investigate the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, which killed a U.S. ambassador and several American service members.

select

This chamber is more deliberative Treaties are considered in this chamber

senate

Congress has a number of functions other than lawmaking. These include

setting the national agenda. acting on presidential actions. representing constituents.

Congress manages ______ conflict by representing a wide range of views and interests.

societal

Who do House and Senate members often rely upon to inform decision making on legislation due to their policy expertise?

staff members colleagues

A permanent committee in Congress is known as a(n) committee.

standing

A subcommittee is a subset of the members of a ______ committee.

standing

What type of committee typically handles specific areas of a standing committee's jurisdiction?

subcommittee

In the House of Representatives, debate is limited on the congressional floor by

the Rules Committee.

Which model of representation insists that legislators vote in line with their constituents' views even when this contradicts their personal views?

the instructed delegate model

Who schedules debates on legislation in the Senate?

the majority leader

With the widespread use of computer-driven mapmaking technology, congressional seats can be configured to ensure that

the majority of a district's population identifies with one party

Congress gets its powers from sources other than the Constitution, including

the media Supreme Court decisions American citizens

Which of the following legislative powers does the president possess?

the power to veto a bill the power to sign a bill into law

Which of the following methods is most often used to select committee chairs?

the seniority system

True or false: Supreme Court decisions often uphold the constitutionality of a law, in a sense verifying Congress's ability to create policy on a given subject.

true

Since the Senate is smaller than the House, it does not require a Rules Committee. Instead, the Senate utilizes ______ consent agreements to limit debate on the floor.

unanimous

In the Senate, terms of debate are defined through

unanimous consent.

Compared with their percentage of the overall population of the United States, women and minorities are ______ in Congress.

underrepresented

A politico is a representative who

votes with constituents on important matters but follows his/her conscience on more mundane matters.

True or false: The vice president presides over the Senate quite often.

False

The most powerful leader in the House of Representatives is the

Speaker of the House.

Which of the following oversight tools help Congress to ensure that the executive branch is administering the laws properly?

investigations congressional confirmation hearings budgetary appropriations

An example of Congress's ______ function is when Congress passes laws creating incentives for the development of alternative energy sources.

policy-making

Which of the following have a significant influence on the decisions of legislators?

political parties interest groups constituents

The Senate minority leader

works with whips to keep the minority party united on roll call votes.

How is legislation proposed in the House of Representatives?

A staff member places legislation in a wooden box on a desk at the front of the House chamber.

Why is the Rules Committee considered one of the most important committees in the House?

Because it decides the length of debate that will occur on a bill and whether amendments will be allowed.

Which of these statements characterizes powers that Congress has been given in the Constitution?

Some are very specific, and others are vague.

What occurs after a conference committee reconciles differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill?

The bill goes back to both chambers for a vote.

Congress continuously engages in ______ setting because it relieves the pressure parties face in getting their members to vote with their particular party.

agenda

Majority-minority districts are

an attempt to increase diversity in Congress.

When there is a designation within a spending bill that provides for a specific expenditure it is called

an earmark.

In the large majority of cases, the winner of a congressional campaign is the

incumbent

The purpose of pork barrel projects is to show constituents that their representative

is actively working for them in Congress.

The power of taxation, among other powers, was given to Congress

it increased the powers of Congress beyond the language of the Constitution.

The term ______ referral describes the practice of referring a bill simultaneously to two different committees in the House of Representatives for consideration.

joint

The framers' vision of the Senate was as the

legislative body that safeguards the rights of states and minorities against mass opinion

The main purpose of a conference committee is to

reconcile differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill.

The Supreme Court ruled that majority-minority districting is illegal if the

state legislature redraws majority-minority districts at the expense of other concerns.

Which model of representation means that a legislator may act in opposition to the clear wishes of constituents, such as in cases where an action is for the good of society?

the trustee model

Who has the power to preside over the Senate and vote in case of a tie but otherwise has little real authority in the Senate?

the vice president of the United States

The president's opinion concerning a specific bill can influence members of Congress, especially when

they belong to the same party as the president.

What area has traditionally been the vehicle for pork barrel projects?

transportation bills

If a vote in the Senate is tied, __________ ___________ the breaks the tie.

vice president

Both political parties in the House have a ______, who acts as a go-between with the leadership and the party members in the House.

whip