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