Chapter 11

Constituents: The residents of a congressional district or state

Redistricting: The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census, to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.

Redistricting can be a puzzle because the districts need to be as equal as possible.

Safe Seat: An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other, so the success of that party’s candidate is almost taken for granted

 Bicameralism: The principle of a two-house legislature

 The United States has a bicameral congress because of the Great Compromise that made Congress have two houses, the House of Representative and the Senate.

Speaker of the House: The presiding officer in the House of Representatives, formally elected by the House but actually selected by the majority party

Majority Leader: The legislative leader in the Senate, that is selected by the majority party who helps plan party strategy, confers with other party leaders, and tries to keep members of the party in line; current majority leader of the Senate is Democratic Senator Harry Reid

 Majority/Minority Whip: The whip assist the floor leaders.  They serves as liaisons between the leadership and the rank-and-file in the legislature.  The current Senate Majority and Minority Whips are Sen. Richard Durbin and Sen. Jon Kyl respectably. 

Closed Rule: A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that prohibits any amendments for a bill or provides that only members of the committee reporting the bill may offer amendments

President Pro Tempore: Officer of the Senate selected by the majority party to act as chair in the absence of the vice president; current President Pro Tempore is Democratic Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

Filibuster- a procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator temporarily blocks the consideration of a bill or nomination

Senatorial courtesy- Presidential custom of submitting the names of prospective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work

Special or select committee- A congressional committee created for a specific purpose, sometimes to conduct an investigation.

Conference committee- Committee appointed by the presiding officers of each chamber to adjust differences on a particular bill passed by each in different form.

Conference committees make adjustments on bills.

Authorization Committee – Authorizing committees pass the laws that tell government what to do. The house and senate education and labor committees, for example, are responsible for setting the rules governing the Pell Grant student loan program, including who can apply, how much they can get, where the loans come from, and how defaults are handled. Simply, they make the most basic decisions about who gets what, when and how from government. 

The authorization committee makes the rules for which the government must follow.

Appropriations Committee – Appropriations committees make decisions about how much money government will spend on its programs and operations. Although there is just one appropriation committee in each chamber, each appropriations committee has one subcommittee for each of the 13 appropriation bills that must be enacted each year to keep government running. 

The appropriations committee is responsible for how much money the government spends and how it is spent.

Discharge petition- Petition that, if signed by a majority of the House of Representatives’ members, will pry a bill from committee and bring it to the floor for consideration.

The discharge petition will bring the bill to the floor for consideration without being passed by the committee

Earmarks – The 13 appropriation bills that must be enacted each year to keep the government running, often contain special projects, or earmarks, for individual members. Members of congress use earmarks for everything from new highways to university buildings, and these expenditures increase the incumbency advantage. 

Earmarks are used for special projects that usually help the incumbents.

House ways and Means Committee – It exists to raise revenue through taxes, and therefore is arguably the single most powerful committee in congress. It raises and authorizes spending. It is also responsible for making basic decisions on the huge Social Security and Medicare programs. 

House ways and means committee is responsible for raising revenue.

Committee Chairs – Each political party controls the selection of standing committee members. The chair and a majority of each committee come from the majority party. 

The leadership role in a committee.

Senate Finance Committee – There are only four prestigious committees in the senate: appropriations, armed services, finance, and foreign relations. Senators can only serve on two of these “Super A” committees, and cannot be chairs of more than one. 

The senate finance committee is one of four prestigious committees in the senate committees.

Legislative Oversight - The continuing review of how effectively the executive branch carries out the laws Congress passes. 

The legislative oversight is important in seeing how effective it is being carried out.

 Pork Barrel Legislation - The term pork barrel politics usually refers to spending that is intended to benefit constituents of a politician in return for their political support, either in the form of contributions or votes.

Pork Barrel Legislation is an unfair advantage.

Attentive public- Those citizens who follow public affairs closely.

Ethics – A branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality – that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc. 

Politicians must deal with ethical issues while in office.

Bill - A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act. 

It takes an idea to create a bill, but a bill is not an act...not yet.

Hopper – House members introduce a bill by placing it into a mahogany box, called a hopper, on a desk at the front of the house chamber; senators introduce a bill by either handing it to the clerk of the senate or by presenting it to their colleagues in a floor speech. 

The hopper is brown and made out of mahogany.

Referral – Although most bills are referred to a single committee, particularly complex bills may be referred simultaneously or sequentially to multiple committees. 

The bill went through a dozen of referrals.

Markup – Once a committee or subcommittee decides to pass the bill, it “marks it up” to clean up the wording or amend its version of the bill. The term markup refers to the pencil marks that members make on the final version of the bill. 

There were many markups on the final version of the bill.

 Laws and Acts are two different things. One is made by legislation and the other is not.

Seniority rule- A legislative practice that assigns the chair of a committee or subcommittee to the member of the majority party with the longest continuous service on the committee.

Delegate- An official who is expected to represent the views of his or her constituents even when personally holding different views; one interpretation of the role of the legislator.

The delegate is an appointed person.

Trustee- An official who is expected to vote independently based on his or her judgment of the circumstances; one interpretation of the role of the legislator.

The trustee voted yes because he thought it was the best for the people.

Logrolling- Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.

The two legislators were logrolling when they both agreed to trade votes.

Rider- A provision attached to a bill- to which it may or may not be related- in order to secure its passage of defeat.

The rider is essential in helping pass a bill.

Pocket veto- A veto exercised by the president after Congress has adjourned; if the president takes no action for ten days, the bill does not become law and is not returned to Congress for a possible override. 

The President forgot about the bill, and therefore was pocket vetoed

Override- An action taken by Congress to reverse a presidential veto, requiring a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

Congress overidded the presidential veto to get the bill passed.

 Reapportionment: The assigning by Congress of congressional seats after each census; state legislatures reapportion state legislative districts

After each United States Census, reapportionment occurs to make sure the same amount of people are represented by a Congress person.

 Gerrymandering: The drawing of legislative district boundaries to benefit a party, group, or incumbent

Gerrymandering gives a political party an advantage in a district by weakening the opposing party's strength by splitting up the party.

Incumbent: The current holder of an elected office

Enumerated Powers: The powers explicitly given to Congress in the Constitution

Some enuemerated powers are the power to make war and the power to "lay and collect taxes."

Party Caucus: A meeting of the members of a party in a legislative chamber to select party leaders and to develop party policy; called a conference by the Republicans

Minority Leader: The legislative leader selected by the minority party as spokesperson for the opposition; current minority leader of the Senate is Republican Senator Mitch McConnell

 House Rules Committee: One of the most powerful committees in either chamber.  It decides the rules governing the length of the floor debate on any legislative issue and sets limits on the number and kinds of floor amendments that will be allowed.

Open Rule: A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that permits debate on floor amendments within the overall time allocated to the bill

Hold: A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator temporarily blocks the consideration of a bill or nomination

Cloture- A procedure for terminating debate, especially filibusters, in the Senate

A cloture can be accomplished through the a vote two days after 16 senators sign a petition asking for cloture.

Standing committee- A permanent committee established in a legislature, usually focusing on a policy area

Joint committee- A committee composed of members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.