Chapter 5: The Legislative Branch

What are the qualifications for senators?

-30 years old -Have to be citizens of US for at least 9 years (they have no particular district)

What does the Committee Chairperson do?

-Make work decisions: when they will meet, which bills to discuss & how long -Decide when hearings will be held and which witnesses will be called to testify for or against a bill -hire staff for committees and control budgets -manage floor debates on bills that come from their committees.

What 6 goals (of the House) do the 435 members of Congress go by?

-Organizing and unifying party members -Scheduling work -Making certain that lawmakers are present for key floor votes -Distributing and collecting information -Keeping the House in touch with the president -Influencing lawmakers to support their party's positions

3 privileges for Congress members?

-They cannot be sued for anything they say on the House or Senate floor -Both Senate and House can judge new members and decide to seat them -Each house may punish their own members by a two-thirds vote.

What 2 things can the Speaker do?

1) Decides which members to recognize during proceedings 2) Appoints the members of some committees, schedules bills for action, and refers bills to the Proper House Committee

What are the four types of committees congress has?

1) Standing committees 2) Select committees 3) Joint Committees 4) Conference committees (U gotta know what they do, yo)

What is the majority leader's job?

1) To help plan the party's legislative program, 2) Steer important bills through the House, 3) Make sure the chairpersons of the many committees finish work on bills that are important to the party.

What are the four reasons why it is easy for incumbents to be reelected?

1) they can raise funds more easily through personal contracts 2) many districts have been gerrymandred in their party favor 3) They are already known 4) Voters believe they represent their views

The Constitution requires a supermajority of two-thirds of the Senate to do what three things? (fun fact lol) (Technically, the vote of a simple majority, fifty senators plus one, is required to pass a proposed bill).

1. Approve treaties 2. Overturn pres. vetoes, 3. Remove feds from office if they have been impeached in the House.

How can assignment to the "right" be beneficial?

1. Can increase lawmaker's chance for reelection because it puts a person in position to act on bills that are important to the people they represent 2. membership on some committees can mean the lawmaker will be able to influence national policies 3. Some committees allow a member to influence many other members because they affect matters that are important to everyone in Congress.

What are the three reasons the committee system is important?

1.) It allows members of Congress to divide work between smaller groups 2.) They filter out bills so that more important ones can be looked at 3.) They help the public look at problems in the nation

Of the thousands of bills and resolutions that are introduced during each legislative term of Congress, only about _____-_____ percent ever go to the full House for a vote. Bills that survive the committee process are put on one of the House calendars.

10-20

For a regular session, a quorum requires a majority of 218 members. When the House meets to debate and amend legislation, it often sits as a Committee of the Whole. In that case, _____ members constitute a quorum.

100

In the 85th Congress (1957-1959), there were only 15 women representatives (3 percent); by 2013, however, _____ women were serving in the House of Representatives (19 percent).

100 (WHOOOOP)

Two years later, in Reynolds v. Sims, the Court held that the equal protection clause of the ______ Amendment required that seats in both houses of the Alabama state legislature be apportioned on a population basis.

14th

How many senators are from each state in the US?

2

Until the ____ Amendment was ratified in 1933, congressional sessions began in March, which left a four-month period between the November elections and when new members began to serve.

20th

Which amendment (1992) says that Congress cannot give itself a pay raise; the raise becomes effective only after another election?

27th

Article I, Section ____ of the Constitution says: "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings." Thomas Jefferson stressed the importance of rules when he was vice president.

51

The Senate and the House set their own salaries. In 1789 salaries were $___ per day. This low pay deterred some people from running for Congress.

6

Originally the House had only ____ members. As the population of the nation grew, the number of representatives increased.

64

In a 1962 Tennessee case, _____ V ______, the Court held that federal courts could decide conflicts over drawing district boundaries.

Baker v. Carr

_______________ help ease the workload and are the key power centers in Congress.

Committees

(Good Stuff to know)

Conference committees play a key legislative role because they work out a bill that both houses will accept and can then send to the president to be signed. To get such a bill, the conferees bargain over each section of the bill. A majority of the conferees from each house must accept the final compromise bill—called a conference report—before it can be sent to the floor of the House and Senate. When the conference committee's report reaches the floor of each house, it must be considered as a whole and cannot be amended. It must be accepted or rejected as it is.

The Founders gave more power to ____________ than to any other branch.

Congress

_____________ means dividing an opponent's voters into other districts to weaken the opponent's voter base.

Cracking

The term gerrymandering has been traced to (insert name here), an early Massachusetts governor who signed a redistricting plan that gave his party an advantage over the Federalists.

Elbridge Gerry

As James Madison said, Congress is "the ___________ of the Government."

First Branch

Senate has only two calendars—the Calendar of ___________________, which lists all the bills the Senate will consider, and the __________________, which schedules treaties and nominations.

General Orders, Executive Calendar

Leaders of the ________ have more power than leaders in the _________.

House, Senate

The ____________________________________ Act of 1970 made a number of changes that made the committee system more democratic by reducing the power of committee chairs.

Legislative Reorganization

"___________________" has developed into a business to meet the demand for the limited number of seats in a congressional committee room.

Line sitting

What is the function of the Rules Committee?

Major bills that reach the floor of the House do so by a rule—or special order—from the Rules Committee. As major bills come out of committee, they are entered on the calendar in the order in which they are received.

______________, the first woman to serve as Speaker, continued to concentrate authority in the Speaker's office at the expense of the committees.

Nancy Pelosi

Today, Congress plays a central role in formulating _________ _________. It initiates and approves laws that deal with everything from health care to changes in our taxes.

National policies

_____________ a district means drawing the lines so they include as many of the opposing party's voters as possible.

Packing

With 435 members, the House of Representatives is much larger than the Senate. The Constitution does not set the number of representatives in the House. It simply states that House seats must be apportioned, or divided, among the states on the basis of _____________. Each state is entitled to at least ______ seat in the House, no matter how small its population is.

Population, one

In the absence of the Vice Pres, the ______________ presides. (Historically, it is that party's longest-serving member)

President pro tempore (or "pro tem")

The Speaker of the House is also known as what two other things?

Presiding Officer and the Leader of Majority Party

In Shaw v. Reno (1993), the Court said that the plan used ______ as the predominant factor in drawing districts.

Race

Representatives must be at least 25 years old, be citizens of the United States for at least _______ years, and be legal residents of the state that elects them. Traditionally, representatives also live in the district they represent.

Seven

Senators enjoy ___-year terms of office and represent their entire state, while representatives have ____-year terms and are elected from districts.

Six, two.

When the Vice President is unavailable, who steps in?

Speaker of the House

In addition to their $174k salary each year, Congress members enjoy a number of benefits and resources, like: (All members are entitled to an income tax deduction to help keep up two residences, one in their home state and one in the capital. In addition, senators and representatives may be eligible for pensions of up to 80 percent of their final salaries and have a generous 401(k) plan).

Stationery, postage for official business (called the Franking privilege), a clinic, gym, etc.

In a series of decisions in the 1960s, the Supreme Court ruled on redistricting issues in three different states:

Tennesee, Georgia, and Alabama

Calendars have so many bills on them that if they were taken up in calendar order, many would never reach the floor before the session ended. To solve this problem, what did they do?

The chairperson of the committee that sent the bill to the Rules Committee can ask for it to move ahead of other bills. The Rules Committee can also say how long the bill can be debated and revised.

The majority leader has help from the majority whip and deputy whips, who serve as assistant floor leaders in the House. What is the majority whip's job?

The majority whip's job is to watch how majority-party members intend to vote on bills, to persuade them to vote as the party wishes, and to see that party members are present to vote.

The minority party in the House elects its own leaders—the minority leader and the minority whip. What are their jobs?

Their responsibilities parallel the duties of the majority party, except that they have no power over scheduling work in the House.

(Continuation of one before)

This procedure helps speed consideration of important bills, but the Committee of the Whole cannot pass a bill. Instead, it reports the measure back to the full House with any revisions it makes. The House then passes or rejects the bill.

The Vice Pres, or the Senate's Pres is not an elected senator, therefore cannot take part in debates or cast a vote except in the event of a ____.

Tie

(good-to-know-stuffs) The House is normally in session from Monday through Friday. Mondays are for routine work, and not much is done on Friday because many representatives leave to go to their home districts over the weekend. Thus, most of the House's important work is done from ________________-______________.

Tuesday-Thursday

Leadership in the Senate closely parallels leadership in the House, but the Senate has no Speaker. Who instead presides over the senate?

Vice Pres.

Joint Committee:

a committee that consists of members from both the House and Senate, formed to act as a study group that reports back to the House and Senate on a topic or bill

Subcommittees:

a group within a standing committee that specializes in a subcategory of its standing committee's responsibility

Filibuster, or "talk the bill to death" is what?

a method of defeating a bill in the Senate by stalling the legislative process and preventing a vote

Standing Committee:

a permanent committee in Congress that oversees bills that deal with certain kinds of issues

constituent

a person whom a member of Congress has been elected to represent

Select (temporary) Committees

a temporary committee formed to study one specific issue and report its findings to the House or Senate

Conference Committee:

a temporary joint committee set up when the House and the Senate have passed different versions of the same bill

What is a censure?

a vote of formal disapproval of a member's actions

Despite not being able to vote on the final passage of a bill, what CAN the 5 delegates do?

attend sessions, introduce bills, speak in debates on the House floor, and vote in committees.

What is Concurrent Jurisdiction?

authority shared by both federal and state courts

While the Constitution assigned great power to the legislators, it also made Congress a _____________ legislature, meaning that it is made up of two very different parts of the Congress, called houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives.

bicameral

A _________, or closed meeting, of the majority party chooses the Speaker of the House at the start of each session of Congress, and the entire House membership approves the choice of Speaker

caucus

Senators can end a filibuster by voting for a ____________________________. Sixty senators must vote for cloture. This means that for all practical purposes any major bill can pass the Senate only if it can get the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster.

cloture resolution

Although public attention usually focuses on the debates that take place in the Senate and House chambers, the real work of crafting bills takes place in the ____________ rooms.

committee

Membership in the House is so large that organizing members into ____________ allows representatives to have more influence than on the House floor (it also gives representatives the time to study and shape bills).

committees

What is the job of the Minority leader?

critiquing the majority party's bills and keeping his or her own party united. A key job is making sure that legislators are present in the chamber when key votes come up.

In League of United Latin American Citizens, et al. v. Perry, the Court ruled that state legislators may redraw congressional districts in the middle of a __________ rather than only after a U.S. census.

decade

Congress's division into two houses has resulted in much friction because they often approach issues very _____________. At their best, the differences produce compromise and national consensus. At their worst, they result in legislative gridlock, or the failure to get critical legislative work done.

differently

Because more than 90 percent of all representatives are reelected, the House has great continuity. If a representative dies or resigns in the first session of Congress, the state must hold a special ________ to fill that vacancy. Procedures for filling vacancies that occur during the second session vary from state to state.

election

Congress includes 535 voting members—100 senators and 435 representatives. In addition, there are _ ____delegates in the House—one each from the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands—and one resident commissioner from Puerto Rico.

five

In the Senate, the rules are more _________ than in the House to give all senators maximum freedom to express their ideas. For example, because the Senate usually allows unlimited debate on bills, senators can debate a proposal on and off for weeks or even months.

flexible

States would draw district boundaries to give one political party an electoral advantage. This process is called ______________.

gerrymandering

A single senator can object to a unanimous consent agreement and slow down or even stop the pending business. Senators can place __________on a bill, alerting their party leaders that if unanimous consent was sought, they would object.

holds

In 1991 it voted for a pay hike of $23,000, but it also included a provision that prohibited ____________—money paid for speeches.

honoraria

Between 1946 and 2012, more than 90 percent of all __________, members who were already in office, won reelection.

incumbents

Nearly half the members of Congress are _________.

lawyers

The majority leader is the floor leader of his or her political party in the House and, like the Speaker, is elected by the ____________ party. Thus, the majority leader is not a House official but rather a party official.

majority

The majority of the members of each standing committee are also members of the _________ party. Party membership on committees is usually divided in direct proportion to each party's strength in each house. (For example, if 60 percent of the members of the House are Republicans, then 60 percent of the members of each House standing committee will be Republicans. Thus, a ten-member committee would have six Republicans and four Democrats. However, the party in power in the House will often have a supermajority on the most important committees).

majority

The Speaker's top assistant is the _____________________.

majority leader.

The larger House of Representatives set rules to limit debate and promote __________ rule. The smaller Senate set rules that gave more muscle to the minority, whether that be a party, a _________, or an individual senator.

majority, faction

After the 1990 census, several states drew new district lines to increase the voting power of ethnic or racial minorities. This approach increased __________ representation, but it also tended to concentrate the Democratic vote, leaving neighboring districts more Republican.

minority

Each congressional term is two sessions, or meetings. A session lasts ______ year(s) and includes breaks for holidays and vacations.

one

In a 1964 Georgia case, Wesberry v. Sanders, the Court ruled that the Constitution clearly intended that a vote in one congressional district was to be worth as much as a vote in another district. This principle has come to be known as the "________, __________" rule.

one-person, one-vote

In order to assign representatives on the basis of population, the Census Bureau takes a national census, or _______________________, every 10 years. The first census was taken in 1790, and each state was apportioned its representatives. The next census will be in 2020.

population count

The Constitution also allows each house to write its own rules of __________.

procedure

Each state's population determines the number of representatives it will have for the next 10 years—a process called ______________.

reapportionment.

The process of setting up new district lines after reapportionment has been completed is called _____________. In 2006 the Supreme Court decided a case that allowed states to modify this time-honored procedure.

redistricting

Artist Gilbert Stuart thought the outline of one irregular district looked like a __________. He added a head, wings, and claws and a newspaper published it as a cartoon labeled "Gerrymander." Federalists popularized the term.

salamander (LOL)

What is a quorum?

the minimum number of members who must be present to permit a legislative body to take official action

Congress remains in session until its members vote to adjourn. Neither the House nor the Senate can adjourn for more than ______ days without the approval of the other house. If the Congress does adjourn, the _________ has the authority to call it back for a special session if necessary.

three, president

What is the job of the Majority leader?

to steer the party's bills through the Senate, which is done by planning the work schedule and agenda in consultation with the minority leader. They also make sure that party members attend important sessions and gets support for key bills.

Members of congress are free from arrest in all cases except what? (3 things)

treason, felony, and breach of the peace.

Each term of Congress begins on January 3 in years ending in an odd number and lasts for ______ years.

two

The Constitution provides for Senate continuity by giving senators six-year terms and providing that only one-third of the senators run for reelection every _____ years.

two

he House and Senate each print their rules every _______ years. House rules are generally aimed at defining the actions an individual representative can take, such as limiting representatives to speaking for five minutes or less during a debate.

two

What are unanimous consent agreements?

two parties have agreed and no one objects.

Members of the House of Representatives are elected for _______-year terms. Elections are held in November of _____-numbered years.

two, even

The Senate brings bills to the floor by ________________________, a motion by all members present to set aside formal rules and consider a bill from the calendar.

unanimous consent