Terms : Hide Images
| 6090311318 | incumbents | Those already holding office. In congressional elections, they usually win - especially in the House. | 0 | |
| 6090311319 | casework | Activities of members of Congress that help constituents as individuals by cutting through bureaucratic red tape to get people what they think they have a right to get. | 1 | |
| 6090311320 | pork barrel | The use of government funds for projects designed to please voters or legislators and win votes | 2 | |
| 6090311321 | bicameral legislature | A legislature divided into two houses. The U.S. Congress and every American state legislature except Nebraska's are this. | 3 | |
| 6090311323 | filibuster | A strategy unique to the Senate whereby opponents of a piece of legislation try to talk it to death, based on the tradition of unlimited debate. Today, 60 members present and voting can halt this. | 4 | |
| 6090311324 | Speaker of the House | An office mandated by the Constitution. This person is chosen in practice by the majority party in the House, has both formal and informal powers, and is second in line to succeed the presidency should that office become vacant. | 5 | |
| 6090311325 | majority leader | The principal partisan ally of the Speaker of the House (in the House) or the party's manager (in the Senate). They are responsible for scheduling bills, influencing committee assignments, and rounding up votes in behalf of the party's legislative positions. | 6 | |
| 6090311326 | whips | Party leaders who work with the majority leader or minority leader to count votes beforehand and encourage unsure party members whose votes are crucial to a bill favored by the party. | 7 | |
| 6090311327 | minority leader | The principal leader of the minority party in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. | 8 | |
| 6090311328 | standing committees | Separate subject-matter committees in each house of Congress that handle bills in different policy areas. Ex: energy, agriculture, education, defense | 9 | |
| 6090311329 | joint committees | Congressional committees on a few subject-matter areas with membership drawn from both houses. | 10 | |
| 6090311330 | conference committees | Congressional committees formed when the Senate and the House pass a particular bill in different forms. Party leadership appoints members from each house to iron out the differences and bring back a single bill. | 11 | |
| 6090311331 | select committees | Congressional committees appointed for a specific purpose, such as the Watergate investigation. | 12 | |
| 6090311332 | legislative oversight | Congress' monitoring of the bureaucracy and its administration of policy, performed mainly through committee hearings. | 13 | |
| 6090311333 | committee chairs | The most important influencers of the congressional agenda. They play dominant roles in scheduling hearings, hiring staff, appointing subcommittees, and managing committee bills when they are brought before the full house. They are often the most senior member from the majority party within a given committee. | 14 | |
| 6090311334 | seniority system | A simple rule for picking committee chairs. The member who had served the committee the longest and whose party controlled Congress became chair, regardless of the party loyalty, mental state, or competence. Also applies to the position of the Senate president pro-tempore. | 15 | |
| 6090311335 | a congressional caucus | A group of members of Congress sharing some interest or characteristic. Most are composed of members from both parties and from both houses. | 16 | |
| 6090311336 | bill | A proposed law, drafted in precise, legal language. Anyone can draft one of this, but only a member of the House of Representatives or the Senate can formally submit it for consideration. | 17 | |
| 6090311337 | franking | Benefit allowing members of Congress to mail letters and other materials postage-free | 18 | |
| 6090311338 | House Rules committee | A standing committee unique to the house that provides special rules under which specific bills can be debated, amended, and considered by the house. | 19 | |
| 6090311339 | Senate confirmation | giving the Senate the authority to approve appointments made by the president | 20 | |
| 6090311340 | cloture | A procedure for terminating debate, especially filibusters, in the Senate. 60 votes are needed in invoke cloture. | 21 | |
| 6090311341 | delegate role | A concept of legislative work as simply voting the desires of one's constituents, regardless of one's own personal views | 22 | |
| 6090311342 | trustee role | legislator who is entrusted to excise their own judgment and wisdom; believes their constituents trust their independent decision making ability to act on their behalf | 23 | |
| 6090311343 | pocket veto | A veto taking place when Congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president, who simply lets it die by neither signing nor vetoing it. | 24 | |
| 6090311344 | goal of members of Congress (according to Mayhew) | re-election | 25 | |
| 6090311345 | activities that members engage in (according to Mayhew) | Advertising Credit claiming Position taking | 26 | |
| 6090311346 | reapportionment | The process of reallocating House seats amongst the states, following each census, based on the population of each state. | 27 | |
| 6090311347 | 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. Conducted by the states (often the state legislature). | 28 | |
| 6090311348 | gerrymandering | Process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power. | 29 | |
| 6090311349 | Examples of credit claiming | casework, pork | 30 | |
| 6090311350 | Examples of advertising | non-partisan speeches; congratulatory mail, etc. | 31 | |
| 6090387654 | pigeonhole | action that means a bill introduced into Congress are buried, put away, or never acted upon in Committe, and therefore die | 32 | |
| 6090393708 | tabling | Laying aside a bill to discuss later, ofter as a way to postpone discussion indefinitely | 33 |
