Unit 2 | Chapter 12

A set of legislative procedures that deviates from regular order; reflects a greater level of control from party leaders and less deliberation from members.

"Unorthodox lawmaking"

The effort by Congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies.

Oversight

Congressmembers engage in a variety of activities aimed at serving their constituents. Identify whether each is an example of pork barrel politics or casework. - A district staffer helps an elderly constituent apply for Social Security. - A congressman inserts language into a bill that builds a bridge with federal money. - Several representatives earmark money in an economic stimulus bill for projects in their district.

- Casework - Pork barrel - Pork barrel

- _____ initiates the impeachment process. - _____ convicts or acquits the individual charged. - _____ charges and individual with "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors - _____ involves a vote requiring a simple majority - _____ involves a vote requring a two-thirds majority

- House - Senate - House - House - Senate

The _____ alone has the right to approve or deny the president's appointments of _____. Approval for these nominees requires _____.

- Senate - federal judges - a simple majority

A congressional race features incumbent Sarah Stewart, a progressive African American female who previously worked as a nurse, and John Tucker, a conservative White male who previously was in the marine corps. Identify whether the examples describe descriptive representation or substantive representation. - Theresa, a constituent of Rep. Stewart, is very unhappy with her performance in office, citing her support of Medicare-for-All, and plans to vote against her. - Mia feels that government does not really work for her as an African American woman, so she intends to support Sarah Stewart because of their shared experience as women of color. - Bob, a conservative White male who previously served in the military, is primarily interested in supporting Tucker because he believes that Tucker can identify with his experiences. - Beth, a constituent of Rep. Stewart is pleased with her representative's voting record, which is closely aligned to Beth's political views.

- Substantive Representation - Descriptive Representation - Descriptive Representation - Substantive Representation

A gathering of House Republicans every two years to elect their House leaders; Democrats call their gathering the "caucus".

Conference

Joint committees created to work out a compromise on House and Senate versions of a piece of legislation.

Conference committees

How does Congress exercise influence over other branches of government? A. Congress can fail to enforce a president's executive orders. B. Congress can fail to enforce the Supreme Court's rulings. C. Congress can intervene in challenges to federal laws, intercepting them before the Supreme Court grants the cases certiorari. D. Congress can exercise oversight over the executive branch with hearings investigating effectiveness of programs, inefficiencies, and abuses of power.

Congress can exercise oversight over the executive branch with hearings investigating effectiveness of programs, inefficiencies, and abuses of power.

Presidents have a variety of tools at their disposal to circumvent Congress when negotiating agreements with leaders of other nations. How can Congress exert its authority over the president when it comes to agreements with foreign governments? A. Congress can refuse to appropriate the funds needed to implement an executive agreement. B. Congress can refuse to enforce executive agreements it does not support. C. Congress can declare a president's executive agreement with another foreign government unconstitutional. D. Executive agreements lack the force of law, so Congress does not have to act.

Congress can refuse to appropriate the funds needed to implement an executive agreement.

A roll-call vote in the House or Senate in which at least 50 percent of the members of one party take a particular position and are opposed by at least 50 percent of the members of the other party.

Party unity vote

Amendments back and forth between the relevant House and Senate committees to reconcile differences between bills or major measures without convening a conference committee at all.

Ping-ponging

Congressional committees, which were once considered central to policy making, have much less power in the contemporary Congress due to A. the elimination of dedicated committee staff. B. seniority determining leadership of committees. C. less need for technical expertise on issues in the internet age. D. sharp partisan divisions lessening the role of deliberation and bipartisan expertise in policy making.

sharp partisan divisions lessening the role of deliberation and bipartisan expertise in policy making.

The apportionment of voters in districts in such a way as to give unfair advantage to one racial or ethnic group or political party.

Gerrymandering

A bill that deals with a number of unrelated topics.

Omnibus appropriations bill

A provision by the House Rules Committee that permits floor debate and the addition of new amendments to a bill.

Open rule

The deep ideological distance between the two parties.

Polarization

Holding the political office for which one is running.

Incumbency

What effect has partisan polarization had on bill passage in Congress? A. Congress has been unable to pass important legislation to address crises such as the coronavirus pandemic due to partisan polarization. B. Although partisan polarization has been on the rise, Congress has been able to pass legislation to address important crises like the coronavirus pandemic. C. Although party polarization is on the rise, party unity votes are on the decline since constituents punish legislators for not compromising. D. Interest groups have counteracted the role of partisan polarization on congressional decision-making.

Although partisan polarization has been on the rise, Congress has been able to pass legislation to address important crises like the coronavirus pandemic.

The process, occurring after every decennial census, that allocates congressional seats among the 50 states.

Apportionment

The amounts of money approved by Congress in statutes (bills) that each unit or agency of government can spend.

Appropriations

Having a legislative assembly composed of two chambers or houses, distinguished from unicameral.

Bicameral

A proposed law that has been sponsored by a member of Congress and submitted to the clerk of the House or Senate.

Bill

A normally closed political party business meeting of citizens or lawmakers to select candidates, elect officers, plan strategy, or make decisions regarding legislative matters.

Caucus (political)

Associations of members of Congress based on party, interest, or social group, such as gender or race.

Caucuses (congressional)

A provision by the House Rules Committee limiting or prohibiting the introduction of amendments during debate.

Closed rule

A rule or process in a legislative body aimed at ending debate on a given bill; in the U.S. Senate, 60 senators (three-fifths) must agree in order to impose a time limit and end debate.

Cloture

How does regular order lawmaking differ from unorthodox lawmaking? A. Unorthodox lawmaking is more deliberative compared to lawmaking under regular order. B. Committees and subcommittees are more powerful under regular order than unorthodox lawmaking. C. Party leaders play a much greater role in policy making under regular order compared to that of unorthodox lawmaking. D. Passing policies is much more difficult under unorthodox lawmaking compared to regular order because of the increased number of steps in the policy-making process.

Committees and subcommittees are more powerful under regular order than unorthodox lawmaking.

Which statement about Congress's oversight capacity is accurate? - Most programs undergo near constant oversight by Congress. - Most investigations are concerned with a specific bill. - Congressional committees may investigate a program and choose to change or eliminate it. - Committees can compel testimony from witnesses, but they do not have the power to bring criminal charges for contempt.

Congressional committees may investigate a program and choose to change or eliminate it.

The residents in the area from which an official is elected.

Constituency

A representative who votes according to the preferences of their constituency.

Delegate

A type of representation in which representatives have the same racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or educational backgrounds as their constituents; it is based on the principle that if two individuals are similar in background, character, interests, and perspectives, then one can correctly represent the other's views.

Descriptive representaiton

An agreement, made between the president and another country, that has the force of a treaty but does not require the Senate's "advice and consent".

Executive agreement

A tactic used by members of the Senate to prevent action on legislation they oppose by continuously holding the floor and speaking until the majority backs down; once given the floor, senators have unlimited time to speak, and it requires a vote of three-fifths of the Senate to end a filibuster.

Filibuster

What strategies do party leaders use to strengthen their power under follow-the-leader lawmaking? A. Party leaders use open rules, which allow more members to amend legislation, to curry favor among rank-and-file party members. B. Party leaders have relied less on multiple referrals, which refers to sending bills to multiple committees for consideration, instead relying on a single committee to markup legislation. C. Party leaders rely less on large omnibus appropriations bills, since that would provide influence to many more members. D. House and Senate leaders rely much less on conference committees to reconcile chamber differences on bills, instead ping-ponging amendments between the chambers to work out differences.

House and Senate leaders rely much less on conference committees to reconcile chamber differences on bills, instead ping-ponging amendments between the chambers to work out differences.

Which presidents have been impeached? - Grover Cleveland - Bill Clinton - Andrew Johnson - Lyndon Johnson - Richard Nixon - Donald Trump

Impeached: - Andrew Johnson - Bill Clinton - Donald Trump Not impeached: - Richard Nixon - Lyndon Johnson - Grover Cleveland

The formal charge by the House of Representatives that a government official has committed "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors".

Impeachment

Which of the following statements regarding congressional decision-making is true? A. Because constituents lack political knowledge, members of Congress rarely take constituents' opinions into account in decision-making. B. Interest groups exercise significant influence by providing information to lawmakers and often helping to craft specific language in legislation. C. Bipartisanship in lawmaking has increased over the past decade, allowing for swift decision-making. D. Members of Congress often change their positions on important bills due to receiving campaign donations from interest groups.

Interest groups exercise significant influence by providing information to lawmakers and often helping to craft specific language in legislation.

Legislative committees formed of members of both the House and Senate.

Joint committees

The elected leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives or in the Senate; in the House, the majority leader is subordinate in the party hierarchy to the Speaker of the House.

Majority leader

The session in which a congressional committee rewrites legislation to incorporate changes discussed during hearings on a bill.

Markup

Which of the following statements regarding congressional representation is true? A. Congress members acting as delegates may not pay sufficient attention to the wishes of their constituents, while those acting as trustees closely adhere to their constituents' views. B. While Congress is descriptively representative of society, Congress members rarely engage in substantive representation. C. Members of Congress tend to prioritize issues that are highly important to their constituents. D. Members of Congress place little value on constituency service and instead focus the vast majority of their attention on sponsoring bills.

Members of Congress tend to prioritize issues that are highly important to their constituents.

The elected leader of the minority party in the House or Senate.

Minority leader

The practice of referring a bill to more than one committee for consideration.

Multiple referral

A presidential veto that is automatically triggered if the president does not act on a given piece of legislation passed during the final 10 days of a legislative session.

Pocket veto

Appropriations made by legislative bodies for local projects that are often not needed but that are created so that local representatives can win re-election in their home districts.

Pork barrel (or pork)

The process of redrawing election districts and redistributing legislative representatives; this happens every 10 years to reflect shifts in population or in response to legal challenges to existing districts.

Redistricting

A vote in which each legislator's yes or no vote is recorded as the clerk calls the names of the members alphabetically.

Roll-call vote

(usually) temporary legislative committees set up to highlight or investigate a particular issue or address an issue not within the jurisdiction of existing committees.

Select committees

The ranking given to an individual on the basis of length of continuous service on a committee in Congress.

Seniority

The chief presiding officer of the House of Representatives; the Speaker is the most important party and House leader and can influence the legislative agenda, the fate of individual pieces of legislation, and members' positions within the House.

Speaker of the House

Rank the House leadership positions in level of power, starting with the most powerful. Majority whip House majority leader Chief deputy majority whip Speaker of the House

Speaker of the House House majority leader Majority whip Chief deputy majority whip

Legislative support agencies responsible for policy analysis.

Staff agencies

A permanent committee with the power to propose and write legislation that covers a particular subject, such as finance or agriculture.

Standing committee

A type of representation in which a representative is held accountable to a constituency if they fail to represent that constituency properly; this is incentive for the representative to provide good representation when their personal background, views, and interests differ from those of their constituency.

Substantive representation

How does leadership in the U.S. House differ from leadership in the U.S. Senate? A. While the U.S. House of Representatives organizes its leadership by political partisanship, leadership in the U.S. Senate is only organized based on seniority. B. The Speaker holds the most power in the U.S. House of Representatives, while the majority party leader holds the most power in the U.S. Senate. C. The U.S. Senate has more leadership positions compared to the U.S. House of Representatives. D. Senate leaders determine the calendar; the House leadership does not have control over the calendar.

The Speaker holds the most power in the U.S. House of Representatives, while the majority party leader holds the most power in the U.S. Senate.

How do differences between the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate influence representation? A. The relatively small size and uniform nature of their constituencies and two-year terms make U.S. representatives more responsive to local interest groups compared to U.S. senators. B. U.S. senators are more insulated from elections, and therefore senators do not represent their constituents, while U.S. representatives always adhere to constituency opinion. C. Because U.S. senators serve a larger constituency, they are better able to represent constituents compared to U.S. representatives, who serve a narrower constituency. D. Because the U.S. Senate is typically more deliberative than the U.S. House, senators are able to respond more quickly to changes in public opinion.

The relatively small size and uniform nature of their constituencies and two-year terms make U.S. representatives more responsive to local interest groups compared to U.S. senators.

A representative who votes based on what they think is best for their constituency.

Trustee

The president's constitutional power to turn down acts of Congress; a presidential veto may be overridden by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.

Veto

A party member in the House or Senate responsible for coordinating the party's legislative strategy, building support for key issues, and counting votes.

Whip

While _____ votes in the 1970s and 1980s generally did not pit the Democrats and Republicans against each other, since the 1990s, there has been a _____ in party unity votes in Congress. This trend, especially after 2000, reflects greater _____ as the ideological divide between the parties grows.

roll-call rise partisan polarization