Module 4 Lesson 2 Vocabulary

Clotuure

Under Senate Rule 22 the only means of stopping a filibuster and limited debate on a measure is to invoke cloture. A vote of 3/5s, or 60 out of 100 senators is needed to do so. Cloture votes do not succeed very ofter, especially when the Senate is closely divided between the parties.

Act

a completed federal bill that has been passed and is now in force as law, such as the USA Patriot Act or American's With Disabilities Act

Rider

a rider is a measure attached to a bill that is likely to pass. The measure may not have succeeded on its own so its passage is eased by being tacked on to a popular piece of legislation. An unpopular rider may alsso be attached to a bill in order to slow the bill down or block its passage. Riders are mmost common in the Senate due to the lack of restrictions of debate and amendments.

Earmarks

amendments or attachments made to a bill during Conference Committee deliberation. Earmarks usually involve funding and are frequently seen as pork barrel measures.

Resolution

an agreement of Congress on a certain position and/or involves the creationg of an organizatin but technically is not a law. Resolutions may be a House Resolution, Senate Resolution or a Joint Resolution if both chambers agree or act together. Resolutions may also result in a law later, such as the joint War Powers resolution leading the War Powers Act of 1973

Pork barrel

pork refers to legislation that raises and allocates funds for a project that favors a particular state or district, ofter to create jobs and generat renevue. Often seen by others as wasted money and/or an unfair use of government spending, thoses in the state or district benefitted usually see it as the Senator or Representative doing thair job.

pigeonhole

the action of a committee to table a bill to be dealt with "later." It's understood that this all but kills the bill. The chair may pigeonhole a bill unilaterally or the committess may veto to do so. A discharch petition can release a bill from pigeon hole status, but it's rare. Over 90% of bills referred to all committees are pigeonholed. That is true in both the House and the Senate

Floor Debate

the process by which members may argue for or against a bil before their fellow members. House rules strictly control debate, Whereas the Senate places few restrictions of any kind on debate.

Majority/Minority Party

One of teh major political parties - Democrat or Republican - wil have the majority of seats in the House and/or the Senate. That party will be the majority party. The majority party has the advantages of picking the presiding officer of the chamber or house, the majority of members on each comittee as well as the chairperson of each cimmittee, giving the majority party a great deal of power in the legislative process. The minority party is at a disadvantage in legislation, particularly in te HOR, whose rules favor the majority. Senate rules are more inclined to empower individual Senators, even thought the majority still enjoys the other advantages.

Filibuster

Senate Rule 22 takes advantage of the Senate's privilege of unlimited debate. A Senator may hold the floor for an unlimited time as a tactic to stall or otherwise block legislation for various reasons. Such action is called a filibuster. A Senator conducting aa filibuster may not sit nor lean, leave the chamber or stop talking in order to hold the floor. The procedure known as double-tracking was introduced in 1992. Under double tracking a filibuster bill may be set aside, still being filibustered, making a marathon speaking session unnecessary. The number of filibuster since 1992 has skyrocketed. Any important vote almost always requires 60 votes now.

House Committee of the Whole

The House can move to consider a bill as the Committee of the Whole, in which the House membership actually present operates as one big committee. This measure allows the otherwise strict condiitons on debate to be relaxes a bit to move thing along more efficiently. The Committee of the Whole only needs 100 members present to make a quorum instead of the 218 need for whole House

Conference Committee

any bill sent to the president comess from Congress as a whole, so any differences between the House version and Senate version of a bill must be resolved. A back and forth dicussion, known as "pingponging" often resolves the differences, but frequently the differences are great enough that a conference committee made up of members from oth chambers is needed to do accomplish the compromise. If successful, the compromis version is sent back to both chambers for a simple up or down vote. The bill may be debated but no changes may be made. Conference Committees may make significant changes to the substance of the bill

Amendments

any change or addition made to a bill once it has reched the floor of either chamber. Amendments in the House must be germane to the substance of the bill and usually come from a preselected list. There are no limits on amendments on the floor of the Senate.

House Rules Committees

betweeen standing committee and debate on the House floor is the Rules Committee. Most all bills must receive a rule from the Rules Committee before being put on teh floor calendar for debate. The rule sets speaking time limits and how and if amendments may be made to the bill on the floor, and by whom. Many bills are held up in teh Rules Committee if teh House leadership would rather not have the bill go any further. In the Senate there is no Rules Committee, and teh Majority Leader determines which bills will go to the floor and when.

Senate hold/unanimous consent

for efficience much of the Senate's floor business in handled by way of unanimous consent. It is the understanding that the bill before the Senate will have no opposition and so can be quickly passed. The presiding Senator will bang the gavel and say, "Without objection, so moved." Only one objection makes it not unanimouse, so any one Senator can make it known to leadership, openly or secretly, that he or she whill onject should the bill come up. The bill now has a Senate "hold" placed on it, since it cannot be handled via unanimous consent. The bill must them be put back on teh debate calendar where it is subjecte to a filibuster.

Veto/Pocket Veto

is the President's Constitutional power to stop legislation ffrom becoming law. Literally meaning "I forbid" a vetoed bill is sent back to Congress without the president's signature, thus killing the bill. Congress msy override the veto with a 2/3 majority vote of both the House and the Senate. A tough number to get, especially with a politically divided Congress. A pocket veto is a bill dying due to the president refusing to sign the bill and Congress adjouring the session before 10 days have expired since the bill was received.

Mark Up

when committees revise a bill the process is called "mark up." Mark up may be very extensive, even to teh point of completely changing the meaning and intent of the legislation.