Legislative Branch

Congress

Congress is the legislative, or lawmaking, branch of our national government. It shares power with the president and the Supreme Court. Congress has two parts, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

which chamber of congress has the greatest law making authority?

The Executive Branch

what is a "conference committee" and why do we have one? how does this process relate to "legislative ping pong"?

a conference committee is a special joint committee appointed to reconcile differences when bills pass the two chambers of congress in different forms. we have one to help achieve agreements between the house and senate on the exact wording of the legislative acts when two chambers pass legislative proposals in different forms. this relates to legislative ping pong because there are agreements going back and forth between the house and senate

Legislature

a deliberative body of persons, usually elective, who are empowered to make, change, or repeal the laws of a country or state; the branch of government having the power to make laws, as distinguished from the executive and judicial branches of government

The Senate

an assembly or council of citizens having the highest deliberative functions in a government, especially a legislative assembly of a state or nation.

understand each of the steps that a bill must go through after being introduced to congress if that bill is going to become a law

if a bill has passed in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and has been approved by the President, or if a presidential veto has been overridden, the bill becomes a law and is enforced by the government.

what are two major functions of congress discussed in lecture?

1. law making 2. representation

what are some of the functions of congress discussed by your textbook and what is the constitutional basis for these functions?

Bicameralism, Lawmaking Function, Representation Function, Service to Constituents, Oversight Function, Public-Education Function and the Conflict-Resolution Function see textbook for highlighted text

what is bicameralism?

bicameralism is the division of a legislature into two separate assemblies

what is the purpose of the "committee" in the legislative process?

committees aka "little legislatures" usually have a final say on pieces of legislation, the most important committee in congress are the standing committees.

how are committees and leadership structured in the house and senate? what are the key leadership positions in each chamber and what do they do?

committees aka "little legislatures" usually have a final say on pieces of legislation, the most important committee in congress are the standing committees. leadership in the house- consists of the speaker, the majority and minority leaders, and the party whips. leadership in the senate- consists of president pro tempore, senate majority leader, and senate minority leader. each leadership position are expected to mobilize support for partisan legislative or presidential initiatives.

The Legislative Branch

creates laws

how hard is it for a bill to be passed into law? why was our system designed this way?

it is extremely hard our system was designed this way in hopes of making sure everything that was in the process of being passed was somewhat decent and beneficial to our country

The House of Representatives

makes and passes federal laws.

what are some of the consequences of house apportionment for elections?

reapportionment- the allocation of seats in the house to each state after a census redistricting- the redrawing of the boundaries of the districts within each state

what is the difference between "Substantive" and "Descriptive" representation? which is congress better at and why?

substantive- the VOICE of the people, advocates for policy preferences of votes descriptive- the face of the people, tends to have the same background of the people congress is better at substantive representation because more is created or stopped by the voice rather than the face.

what are the major differences between the house and senate discussed by your textbook?

the house- are directly elected by "the people", members of the house are required to to face electorate every two years, only house can introduce a bill to raise taxes, much larger than senate the senate- members were to be chosen by the elected representatives sitting in state legislatures, can serve a more secure term of six years, the senate confirms presidential nominations/treaties.

how do people feel about congress? why is this absurd and what explains this?

the people hate congress as a whole, but we like our part more and generally individual members of congress receive a much higher approval rating (senators and representatives)

what is the primary function of the legislative branch?

to create laws

what is the number one goal of all elected officials (identified by Mayhew)?

to get re-elected