Ch. 13 & 11

Public monies are used to help finance which of the following campaigns?

1 only(presidential)

More than 2500 presidential vetoes have been made since 1789. Congress has overridden about what percent of these?

4 percent

In 1911 Congress decided to fix the size of the House at

435

A mark up session is one in which

A committee or subcommittee makes changes in the original version of a bill

A member of the Senate has just been elected to a position that requires him to keep the majority leader informed about the opinion of other party member. He has just been elected

A majority party whip

A bill can be introduced into Congress by

Any members of Congress

Amount the many powers of the House Speaker is that he or she

Assigns party members to the various committees

In the Senate a filibuster can be ended by invoking

Cloture

Of the following, which has been used most to expand the power of the national government?

Commerce Clause of the Constitution

The largest portion of "uncontrollable spending" in the federal budget is designated for which of the following

Entitlement spending

Interest group activity is protected under the US Constitution by the

First Amendment

A discharge petition is used by the House to

Get a bill stalled in committee onto the floor

A bill to raise taxes would first be referred to the

House Ways and Means Committee

The data displayed in the table above best supports which of the following statements?

House seats are safer from election turnover than are Senate seats

Senate confirmation is required for which of the following presidential appointments

I, III, and IV only

Federal benefits that must be funded by Congress and must be paid to al citizens who fit eligibility criteria are called

Individual entitlements

Which of the following statements about the current cloture rule is correct?

It requires 3/5 of the entire Senate membership to pass

The complexity of the procedure for enacting a law gives the advantages to the bill's

Opponents

Most reformers agree that trimming the pork from Congressional spending is necessary because

Some wasteful projects are solely designed to win votes at home

A major difference between the House and Senate is that

There is unlimited debate in the Senate but not in the House

Which of the following statements about revenue bills is correct?

They must originate in the House

Recent changes in the composition of members in Congress has resulted in

a more ideological and partisan House

Gerrymandering is a process by which

a new district boundary is created to favor one party

The details of legislation are usually worked out in which of the following settings?

a subcommittee

Sometimes money affects legislative behavior not so much by buying votes as by ensuring

access

One important effect of bicameralism is that it

balances large and small states

The type of committee most likely to deal with a bill near the end of its legislative process is the

conference committee

A major cause in the decline of union membership in the United States was a

decline in public support for unions

The sharp rise in the proportion of House members serving only their first or second term in 1995 can be attributed to all of the following except

decreasing the use of seniority as criteria for selection of committee chairs

The purpose of a filibuster is to

delay action in a legislative body

An electoral system based on single member districts is usually characterized by

domination of the legislature by two political parties

Legislators who think themselves as delegates are most likely to

follow their constituents ' wishes closely

The term sophomore surge refers to the tendency of

freshman House members to be reelected

Pork Barrel legislation helps the reelection chances of a member of Congress because such legislation

helps earn the member of Congress a reputation for service in their district

Probably the most effective commodity at the command of interest group is

information

An organization that seeks to influence public policy is most accurately referred to as a

interest group

In terms of composition of its membership, the House since 1950 compared with the Senate has become

less male and less white

In the Senate the greatest power is in the hands of the

majority leader

The powers that the president shares with the Senate include

making treaties

In recent years the political beliefs of members of Congress have become

more polarized than voters

All of the following are commonly used by interest groups to influence the political process EXCEPT

nominating candidates

Votes Congress that evoked party splits during the 1950s were most likely to be reflective of

party polarization

The Americans who are most likely to join interest groups are

people with better than average incomes

The Office of Management and Budget has the primary responsibility for doing which of the following?

preparing the budget

Lobbyists try to influence legislators mainly through

providing legislators with information on technical issues

The congressional power that has been contested more frequently in the federal courts is the power to

regulate interstate commerce

Which of the following committees of the House of Representatives sets the conditions for debate and amendment of most legislation?

rules

The Congressional Black Caucus is one of the best known

specialized caucuses

The boundary lines of congressional districts are drawn by

state legislatures

Under the original Constitution members of the Senate unlike members of the House were selected by

state legislatures

One reason why members of Congress tend to support the policy position of their party is that

support for the party position is essential in the eyes of many voters

Most of the power and real work of Congress is found in

the committees

According to the test some scholars argue that incumbents in Congress are hard to defeat because

the constituency services for their staffs

Lobbyists are restrained from misrepresenting facts or misleading legislators by

the fear of losing legislators' trust and confidence

James Madison believed that the latent causes of factions were rooted in

the nature of man

Decentralization in the House has come to mean that

the power of individual membership has increased

The franking privilege refers to the

the right of members of Congress to send mail to their constituents at the government's expense

A marginal district is one in which

the winner in an election gets less than 55 percent of the vote

The reason Americans participate in civic associations more frequently than do citizens of other countries is

their sense of political efficacy and civic duty

Each of the following was an objective of the Framers except

to make Congress inferior to the executive