US Goverment
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Terms
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- logrolling
- Vote Trading, voting yea to support a colleague's bill in return for a promise of further support
- Oversight
- Congressional review of the activities of an agency, department or office
- Discharge petiton
- Petition that gives a majority of the house of Representatives to bring an issue to the floor in the face of committe inaction
- Earmark
- Funds that an appropriations bll designates for a particualr purpose within a state or congressional district
- Minority Leader
- The elected leader of the party with the second highest nuber of elected representatives in th hose of Representatives of the Senate
- Seniority
- Time of continuous service on a committe
- Divided Goverent
- The political condition in which different political parties control the white house and congress
- filibuster
- a formal way of halting action on a bill by means of long speeches or unlimited debates in the Senate
- Incubency
- the fact that being in office helps a person stay in office becaseu of a variety of benifits that go with the positon
- select/special committe
- tempoarary committe appointed for specific purposes, such as conducting a special ivestigation or study
- Party caucus or confrence
- A formal gathering of all party members
- Pork
- legislation that allows representatives to bring home thebacon to their districts in a form of public works programs, military bases, or other programs designed to benifit their districts directly
- Trustee
- Role played by elected repressentatives who listen to constituents opinions and then use their best judgment to make the final decision
- Impeachment
- The power delegated to the house of Representatives in the constitution to charge the president , or other Civil officers includng the Federal Judges with treason , bribrey or other high crimes and misdemeanors . This is the first step in the constitutional process of removing such goverment officals from office
- Standing Committee
- Committee to which proposed bills are referred
- Senitorial Courtesey
- A process by which presidents when selecting district court judges, defer to the senator in whose state the vacancy occurs
- President pro tempore
- the offical chair of the senate, usually the most senior member of the majority party
- Conference Committee
- Joint Committee created to iron out differences bewteen Sentate and House version of a specifc pice of legislation
- Bill
- A proposed law
- Majority Party
- the political party in each house of Congress with the most members
- War Powers Act
- Passed by congrss in 1973; the president is limited in the deployment of troops overses to a sixty day period in peactime (which can be extended for an extra thirty days to permit withdrawl) Unless congress explicity gives its approval for a longr period
- politico
- Role played by the elected representatives who act as a trustees or as delegates, depending on the issue
- Speaker of the house
- The only officer of the hosue of representatives specifically mentioned in the constitution ; elected at the beginning of each new congress by the entire house ;traditionally a member of the majority party
- Joint Committee
- Incudes members from both houses of Congress, conducts investigations or special studies
- Whip
- Key representative who keeps close contact with all members and take nose counts on key votes, prepares summaries for bills, and in general acts as communications link within the party
- Majority Leader
- The elected leader of the party controlling the most seats in teh house of Representatives or the Senate, is second in authority to the speaker of the house and in teh senate is regarded as in most powerful member
- Markup
- A process in which committee members offer changes to a bill before it goes to the floor in each house for a vote
- Minority Party
- The political party in eac house of congress with the second most mebers
- Cloture
- Mechanisum requiriing sixty senators to cut off debate
- Hold
- A tactic by which a senator asks to be informed before particular bills is brought to the floor . this stops thebill from comming to the floor until the hold is removed
- Delegate
- Role played by a elected representatives who vote the way thier constituents would want them to, regardless of their own opinon
- Congressional Review
- A process whearby Congress can nullify agency regulations by a joint resolution of legislative disapproval
- Pocket veto
- If congress djourns during the ten days teh president has to consider a bill passed by both houses of congress , without the presidents signature the bill is considered vetoed
- bicameral legislature
- A legislator divided into two houses: the US congress ad the state legislatures are bicameral except Nebraska , which is Unicameral
- Redistricting
- the redrawing of congressional istricts to reflect increase or decrease in seats allotted to the states, as well as population shifts within a state
- apportionment
- The process of alloting congressional seats to each state followingthe decennial census according to their proportion of the population
- Veto
- Formal constitutional athority of the president to reject bills passed by both houses of the legislative body; thus preventing their becoming law without further congressional activity