Government II Chap. 9 Congress
Terms
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- Legislative authorizations to spend money for particular purposes
- Appropriation Bills
- Is the division of the legislative branch of government into two chambers. The United States’ bicameral system is composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
- Bicameralism
- A two-house legislature
- Bicameral
- A proposed law
- Bill
- A series of campaign promises offered by Republican candidates during the 1994 congressional elections.
- Contract with America
- To acuse an executive or judicial officeholder of improper behavior serious enough to merit removal from office
- Impeach
- A voting margin that is greater than a simple majority
- Supermajority
- Free mailing privilages granted to members of Congress
- Franklin Privilege
- An arrangement in which two or more members of Congress agree in advance to support each other's favored legislation
- Logrolling
- The movement to restrict the number of terms public officials may serve.
- Term Limitation
- The full House or full Senate taking official action
- Floor
- The presiding officer in the Senate in the vice president's absence
- Senate President Pro Tempore
- Tenure or length of service
- Seniority
- The head of the majority party in the Senate.
- Senate Majority Leader
- The first assistant to the Majority Leader in the House or Senate.
- Majortity Whip
- The leader of the minority party in the Senate
- Minority Leader
- The first assistant to the Minority Leader in the House or Senate
- Minority Whip
- Assistant floor leaders in Congress
- Whips
- The presiding officer in the House of Representatives and the leader of the majority party in that chamber.
- Speaker of the House
- The second ranking majority party leader in the House
- House Majority Leader
- A permanant legislative committee with authority to draft legislation in a particular policy area or areas.
- Standing Committee
- A committee established for a limited time only
- Select committee
- A committe that includes members from both houses of Congress
- Joint Committee
- The leader of the minority party on a committee or subcommittee
- Ranking Member
- All the party members of a chamber meeting as a group
- Party Caucus
- the refusal of the president to spend funds already appropriated by Congress
- Impoundment
- A law limiting the president's ablity to commit American armed forces to combat abroad without consultation with Congress and congressional approval.
- War Powers Act
- Complex, highly detailed legislative proposal covering one or more subjects or programs
- Omnimous Bills
- A legislative statement of opinion on a certain matter
- Resolution
- A member of Congress who introduces a peice of legislation
- Sponsor
- The practice of allowing more than one committee to consider legislation
- Multiple Referral of Legislation
- The process in which legislators go over a measure line-by-line, revising, amending, or rewriting it
- Legislative markup
- Postpone action in the legislative process
- Table
- A procedure whereby a majority of the members of the House of Representatives can force a committee to report a bill to the floor of the House
- Discharge Petition
- A campaign finance reform law designed to limit the political influence of big money campaign contributions
- Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)
- A standing committee that determines the rules under which a specific bill can be debated, amended, and considered on the House floor
- House Rules Committess
- A rule that opens a measure to amendememt without restriction
- Open Rule
- A rule that prohibts floor consideration of amendments on the House Floor
- Closed Rule
- A formal understanding on procedures for conducting busines in the Senate that requires the acceptance of every member of the chamber
- Unanimous Consent Agreement
- Amendments that are unrelated to the subject matter of the original measure
- Non-Germane Amendemnts
- An amendment designed to make a measure so unattractive that it will lack enough support to pass
- Killer Amendment
- An attempt to defeat the measure through prolonged debate
- Filibuster
- The procedure for ending a filibuster
- Cloture
-
A special, joint congressional committee created to negotiate differences on similar peices of legislation passed by the House and Senate.
or
A temporary joint committee. - Conference Committee
- The members of a conference committee
- Conferees
- Compromised legislation produced by a conference committee
- Conference Report
- The action of a president allowing a measure to die without signature after Congress has adjouned
- Pocket Veto
- The action of the chief executive refusing to approve a measure passed by legislation
- Veto
- A provision, unlikely to become law on its own merits, which is attached to an important measure so that it will ride through the legislative process.
- Rider
- An informal allicance in Congress between conservative Democrats, mostly from the South, and Republicans
- Conservative Coalition
- Votes in Congress in which a majority of the members of each party in a chamber vote on opposite sides of an issue
- Party-Line Votes
- The action of members of Congress and their staffs attending to the individual, particular needs of constituents
- Constituency Service
- Expenditures to fund local projects that are not critically important from a national perspective
- Pork Belly Spending
- A political system in which citizens elect representatives to make policy decisions on their behalf
- Representative Democracy
- An official whose influence is diminished because the official either cannot or will not seek reelection
- Lame Duck
- A formal accusation against an executive or judicial officeholder
- Impeachment
- A document listing the impeachable offenses that the House beleives the president committed
- Articles of Impeachment
- The process whereby the states that had seceded during the Civil War were reorganized and re-established in the Union.
- Reconstruction
- An international accord among the United States, Mexico, and Canada to lower trade barriers among the three nations.
- North American Free Trade Agremment NAFTA
- International understanding between the president and foreign nations that does not require Senate ratification
- Executive Agreeement
- The concept that the armed forces should be under the direct control of civiilan authorities
- Civillian Supremacy of the Armed Forces
- An undemocratic governement with power concentrated in the hands of one person or a small group
- Authoriarianism
- An executive action that frees an accused or convicted person from all penalties for an offense
- Pardon
- An executive action that delays punishment for a crime
- Repreive
- The head of the Executive branch of government
- Chief Executive
- A directive issued by the president to an administrative agency or executive department
- Executive order
- The concept that the President enjoys more influence over foreign policy that domestic policy
- Two Presidencies Thesis
- The acquisition from France of a vast expense of land stretching from New Orleans north to the Dakotas
- Louisiana Purchase
- A legislative package of reform measures proposed by President Franklin Roosevelt
- New Deal
- An international agreement to prohibit any nuclear weapons test explosion or any other nuclear explosion anywhere in the world.
- Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
- The phenomenon of one political party controlling the legislative branch of government while the other holds the executive branch
- Divided government
- The group of White House offices and agencies that develop and implement the policies and programs of the president
- Executive office of the President
- An agency in the Executive office of the President that advises the president on matters involving national security
- National Security Council (NSC)
- An agency that assists the president in preparing the budget
- Office of Managment and Budget (OMB)
- The legislative program of President Lyndon Johnson
- Great Society
- An approach to news reporting in which journalists take an adversial attitude toward candidates and elected officials
- Attack Journalism
- The tendency of a president to enjoy a high level of public support during the early months of an administration
- Honeymoon Effect
- The tendency of the general public to express support for the incumbent president during a time of international threat
- Rally Effect
- The process through which Congress evaluates the implementation of public policy by executive branch agencies
- Legislative Oversight
- An independent agency that audits national government expenditures and programs for Congress.
- General Accounting Office (GAO)
- The major administrative units of the federal government that have responsibility for the conduct of a wide range of government operations
- Cabinet Departments
- An advisory group created by the President that includes the department heads and other officials choosen by the President, such as the nations ambassador to the United Nations.
- President's cabinet
-
The Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense,
Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General - Inner cabinet
- Executive branch agencies that are not part of any of the 15 cabinet-level departments
- Independent Executive Agencies
- An agency that administers an American foreign aid program under which volunteers travel to developing nations to teach skills and help improve living standards
- Peace Corps
- The federal agency in charge of the space program
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- The federal agency that gathers and evaluates foreign intelligence information in the interest of the national security
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- The federal agency responsible for enforcing the nation's environmental laws.
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- A federal agency that operates the Social Security System
- Social Security Administration (SSA)
- A federal agency established to make loans to small businesses and assist them in obtaining government contracts
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
- The agency that enforces federal campaign finance laws
- Federal Election Commission (FEC)
- A government corporation responsible for mail service
- Postal Service
- A federal agency that operates inner city passenger railway traffic
- National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK)
- A federal agency established to insure depositor's accounts in banks and savings and loan institutions.
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- A federal agency established to promote the development of the Tennessee River and its tributaries
- Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
- A federal agency established to encourage scientific advances and improvements in science education
- National Science Foundation (NSF)
- A federal agency created to nuture cultural expression and promote appreciation of the arts
- National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- An agency outside the major executive departments that is charged with the regulation of important aspects of the economy. Examples include the FTC, the FCC, the SEC, and the EEOC.
- Independent Regulatory Commission
- A federal agency that regualtes business competition, including enforcement of laws against monopolies and the protection of consumers from deceptive trade practices
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- A federal agency that regulates interstate and international radio, television, telephone, telegraph, and satellite communications, as well as licensing radio and television stations
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- A federal agency that regulates the sale of stocks and bonds as well as investment and holding companies
- Securites and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- An agency that investigates and rules on charges of employment discrimination
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
- Law that is written by the legislature
- Statutory Law
- The method of hiring government employees from among the friends, relatives, and supporters of elected officeholders
- Spoils System
- A measure designed to restrict the political activities of federal employees to voting and the private expression of views
- Hatch Act
- The system that awarded extra points in civil service exams to armed forces veteran's
- Veteran's Preference
- Workers who report wrongdoing or mismanagment
- Whistleblowers
- A legally binding regulation
- Rule
- The regulatory process used by governnment agencies to enact legally binding regulations
- Rulemaking
- A structured process by which representatives of the interests that would be substantially affected by a rule, including representatives of the regulatory agency, negotiate agreement on the terms of the rule
- Regulatory Negotiation
- the actions of members of Congress and their staffs attending to the individual, particular needs of constituents
- Constituency Service
- An indirect system of congressional surveillance of bureaucratic administration characterized by rules, procedures, and informal practices that enable individual citizens and organized interest groups to examine administrative decisions, charge agencies
- Fire-Alarm Oversight
- Agencies that work to benefit the economic interests they regulate rather than serving the public interest
- Captured Agencies
- A cozy, three sided relationship among government agencies, interest groups, and key members of Congress in which all parties benefit
- Subgovernment or Iron Triange
- A group of political actors that is actively involved with policymaking in a particular issue area
- Issue Network
- An official in the Public Health Service who advises the president in health matters
- Surgeon General
- A millitary advisory body that is composed of the chiefs of staff of the U.S. Army and Air Force, the Chief of Naval Operations, and sometimes the Commandant of the Marine Corps
- Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Is the allocation of House seats to the states each ten year census
- Apportionment
- is the drawing of the legislative district boundary lines following each ten year census.
- Redistricting
- The U.S. Constitution requires that the government conduct an actual enumeration of the population every ten years
- Enumeration
- Unequal numbers of people in legislature seats or districts.
- Mal-apportionment
- is the drawing of legislative district lines for political advantage.
- Gerrymandering
- The period of international tension between the United States and the Soviet Union lasting from the laste 1940's through the laste 1980's.
- Cold War
- The personal views of members of Congress have a major impact on legislative policymaking
- Political Ideology
- Has its greatest influence on close votes, procedural votes, and matters that party leaders identify as key.
- Political party
- Most members of Congress believe that they have a responsibility to “vote their district.â€
- Constinuency
- Having few formal powers, congressional leaders must resort to bargaining and persuasion
- Leadership
- Groups hope to gain access to gather information so they can determine the impact of propose policy
- Interest Groups
- The president is a key player in congressional policymaking. Presidents use their influence to round up votes on the floor.
- The White House
- A line item veto is the ability to veto some provisions of a bill while accepting other provisions.
- Line Item Veto
- The right to keep confidential communications from other branch’s of government
- Executive Privilege
- Is the ability to veto some provisions of a bill while accepting other provisions.
- Line Item Veto
- The idea of “going publicâ€suggests that modern presidents must adopt a media oriented strategy if they are to achieve their goals.
- Going Public