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99 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Speaker of the House |
presides over the House, majority party leader, 2nd in line for presidential succession, selects 9/13 members for the House Rules Committee, appoints all members of select and conference committees, determine which committee considers a new bill, determines what bills make it to the floor |
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House Rules Committeee |
13 members, determines which bills comes to the floor, when, and under what conditions debate will be held |
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John Boehner |
Current Speaker of the House |
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House Majority Leader |
floor leader of the majority party, elected every 2 years by secret ballot of the party caucus |
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caucus |
members of the party meet in privacy to plan their policies and political strategies, helps plan legislative agenda, consults with members, confers with president, works to advance programs of the majority party |
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House Minority Leader |
floor leader of the minority party, tries to promote unity among party colleges, monitor the process of bills through committees, and form coalitions |
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whips |
assistants to the majority or minority leaders, gather intelligence about party members, encourage attendance, count potential votes, persuade colleges, convey leadership view to colleges, encourage party discipline |
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party discipline |
pressure on party members to vote on bills that have the support of the party leaders, tendency for for members of a legislative party to vote as a block (democrats vote like democrats, republicans vote like republicans) |
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Senate Majority Leader |
the most powerful person in the Senate, but almost never presides in the Senate |
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The Vice President - Joe Biden
Seldom presides over senate sessions and can only vote in case of a tie. |
Who is the president of the Senate? |
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President Pro Tempore |
senator from the majority party with the longest continuous service, presides over the Senate in the Vice President's absence |
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committee system |
provides Congress with its organizational structure, serves as a division of labor, breaks down into parts, makes it easier to be efficient |
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1. Standing 2. Joint 3. Select 4. Conference |
4 Types of Committees |
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standing committee |
permanent committee, survive from one congressional session to another (20 in the House, 17 in the Senate) |
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joint committee |
made up of members from both the House and Senate, relatively small number of these committees, using concerned with a particular policy |
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1. Joint Committee on Library of Congress 2. Joint Economic Committee 3. Joint Committee on Taxation |
3 Joint Committees |
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select committee |
temporary committees created for a specific purpose, used to cover a particular issue |
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conference committee |
temporary committee created to work out differences between the House and Senate on specific pieces of legislation, sometimes formed when each chamber passes a different version of the same bill |
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1. Bill is read 2. Referred to the appropriate committee 3. Committee overseen by the chair can table the bill and kill it right away or assign it to a sub committee 4. Bill must go through the House Rules Committee who allots time for debate and decides what extend the bill can be amended from the floor 5. Bill sent to House floor |
How A Bill Becomes a Law: Making Policy in Congress - HOUSE |
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bill |
proposed law drafted in precise legal language |
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1. Bill is read 2. Referred to the appropriate committee 3. Committee overseen by the chair can table the bill and kill it right away or assign it to a sub committee 4. Bill sent directly to the floor 5. A bill can be stopped by a senator engaging in a filibuster |
How A Bill Becomes a Law: Making Policy in Congress - SENATE |
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1. Open rules 2. Closed rules 3. Modified rules |
3 Options for the Rules Committee |
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anybody can offer amendments and as many as they want as long as jermain (relevant) |
Open Rules |
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no amendments may be offered |
Closed Rules |
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allowed a certain number of amendments to vote on |
Modified Rules |
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filibuster |
instances in which senators, once recognized to speak on the floor, talk for an extended period of time in an attempt to block the rest of the senate from voting on a bill |
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Committee Chair |
majority leader of a committee |
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ranking minority member |
minority leader of a committee |
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consideration |
process through which a committee shapes a bill before it enters the floor |
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1. Hearings 2. Markups 3. Report |
3 Steps of Consideration |
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hearings |
committees listen to a wide variety of witnesses such as the bill's sponsors, federal bureaucrats, interest groups, and private citizens |
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markups |
after holding hearings, the members of a committee must decide on the actual language of a bill |
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report |
if the full committee votes to send the bill to the floor, the staff prepares a report describing the purposes and provisions of the legislation |
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cloture |
established in 1919, a way for a filibuster to be ended through 3/5 vote (without it the bill dies) |
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1. Members consider amendments 2. Each member votes 3. Two houses work out their differences through a conference committee 4. If passes both houses, moves on to the president |
After the bill reaches the floor... |
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1. Sign the bill into law 2. Veto the bill 3. Do nothing, after 10 days bill automatically becomes law 4. Pocket veto and refuse to sign it, if Congress adjourns before 10 days the bill automatically dies |
4 Options the President has when Presented with a Bill: |
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veto |
president turns down a bill and sends it back to Congress, can be overridden by a 2/3 vote by Congress |
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pocket veto |
president refuses to sign a bill and congress adjourns before 10 legislative days, causing the bill to die |
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1. Faithfully executing laws (executive orders) 2. Commander in chief of the military 3. Responsible for federal budget of the U.S. government |
Executive Powers of the President |
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1. Sign and veto legislation 2. State of the Union address |
Legislative Powers of the President |
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1. Nominate judges 2. Grant pardons |
Judicial Powers of the President |
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Make treaties with foreign nations and receive ambassadors. |
Foreign Powers of the President |
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1. Executive powers 2. Legislative powers 3. Judicial powers 4. Foreign affairs powers |
Constitutional Powers of the President |
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1. The Bully Pulpit - president's platform to convey a message, even if it's not about politics 2. Unofficial head of political party 3. Patronage - giving government jobs to an ally 4. Elections - mandate, presidency backed by the people's support 5. Popularity - the more popular the president, the more leeway he has 6. Setting the agenda - everyone focuses on what you think is important |
Traditional Powers of the President |
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"nation's preacher", privileged place as a speaker on the behalf of the American people |
Bully Pulpit |
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patronage |
giving government jobs to an ally, or someone who backed you while running for president |
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Pendleton Act of 1883 |
can't hire or fire someone because of political parties, people have to be qualified, got rid of the spoils system |
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spoils system |
supports for a president's campaign would be rewarded with government jobs once he had won |
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Tonkin Gulf Resolution |
Congress allows more soldiers to be sent, allows the President to take all measures to repel any attack on U.S. forces or SEATO |
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1. President must report to Congress with 48 hours of troop development 2. President must get congressional approval for the use of combat within 60 days 3. This can be extended 30 days if the president believes the extra time is neccessary |
War Powers Resolution (1973) |
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1. Original Intent Approach 2. Living Document Approach |
Two Interpretation of the Constitution |
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the Constitution is the law of the land, then we should try to figure out the intentions of the people who wrote that Constitution |
Original Intent Approach (Strict Constructivism) |
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times change, society changes, so should change the way in which we view our constitution |
Living Document Approach |
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the rule of four |
four Supreme justices must be willing to look at a case for review |
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docket |
list of cases to cases to be heard by the Supreme Court |
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At the end of John Adams presidency, Marbury as judge, but the papers weren't processed. Marbury filed suit against James Madison, because he wouldn't approve the appointment. The Supreme Court decided that although Marbury was positions, the Supreme Court had no power to order Madison to deliver it to them. *Gave the Supreme Court the power of judicial review.* |
Marbury vs. Madison (1803) |
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judicial review |
the power to declare congressional acts invalid if they violate the Constitution |
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Reed's rules |
procedural guidelines used by the majority party leadership in the House for determining who sits on which committee, how the order of business should be decided, and how the majority party should limit the powers of the minority party |
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majority opinion |
the majority of judges whose votes win the case writes out why they voted the way they did, used a model for lower courts |
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disenting opinion |
judge with the minority vote think the other side is wrong, writes out why they voted why they did |
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concurring opinion |
judges go along with the majority for voting, but have a different reasoning as to why to vote that way |
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distribution model |
the view that members of Congress help other members secure economic benefits for only their specific groups, not the general public |
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impeachment |
process by which the House formally charges a federal government official with a high crime, then the Senate votes on whether or not to remove them from office |
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delegates |
representatives who listen carefully to what their constituents want and make decisions based on feedback from their constituents |
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common law |
the judiciary has the authority to determine how the law is be interpreted, legal precedent established by judges informs future decisions |
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Chief Justice |
head of the Supreme Court, lead business of the Supreme Court and presides over oral arguments |
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adjudication |
process by which a judge reviews evidence and comes to a decision determining rights and obligations of parties involved |
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writ of certiorari |
an order by the Supreme Court directing an inferior court to deliver the records of a case to be reviewed, which means the justices of the Court have decided to hear the case |
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Vice President |
Who is the president of the Senate? |
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ratify |
to sign or give formal consent to a document or bill |
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logrolling |
an instance of two or more legislators agreeing to vote in favor of one another's proposed bills or amendments |
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"to table a bill" |
to suspend consideration of a bill indefinitely through a majority vote in the House |
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informational model |
the view that internal groups in Congress help Congress make more informed decisions |
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trustees |
representatives who make decisions using their own judgements about what is best for their constituents |
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standing |
the official status of a case to be decided by the court |
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statutory law |
the law expressed in writing passed by legislature |
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stare decisis |
the legal principle that requires judges to respect the decisions of past court cases |
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seniority system |
granting privileges to members of Congress who have been there the longest |
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committee |
a sub unit of congress that handles a specific duty |
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subcommittee |
division of a committee that considers specific matters and reports back to the full committee |
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override |
counteracts a veto, needs 2/3 vote in both House and Senate |
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pork barrel |
government spending that benefits a narrow constituency in return for electoral support or some other kind of political support including campaign donations |
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oversight |
the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation |
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cabinet |
departments within the executive branch that encompass many of the agencies that implement general policy, secretaries appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate are given the responsiblity of leadering these departments and probiding advice to the president |
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partisan model |
the view that majority party leaders dominate the working of Congress and ensure that most legislative benefits come to majority party leaders |
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split referral |
a rule that permits the Speaker of the House to split a bill into sections and give sections to specific committees |
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signing statement |
a public statement written by the president and attached to a particular bill to outline the President's interpretation of the legislation |
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executive order |
an official means by which the president can instruct federal agencies on how to execute the laws passed by Congress |
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class action |
a lawsuit in which the plaintiff or defendant is a collective group of individuals |
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constitutional law |
the collection of fundamental rules for making statutory laws and regulations, their enforcement, and the court decisions interpreting those rules |
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amicus curiae |
letters to the court in which those who are not parties in a case provide their opinions on how the case should be decided
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appellate court |
the cases are brought there on appeal by either the plaintiff or the defendant after being decided in a lower level court, no new evidence or witnesses are brought in |
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1. presides over the House 2. 2nd in line for presidential succession 3. selects 9/13 members for the House Rules Committee 4. appoints all members of select and conference committees 5. determine which committee considers a new bill 6. determines what bills make it to the floor |
Powers of the Speaker of the House |
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1. schedules legislation to be presented on the floor 2. consults with other members on party issues 3. works to advance the goal of the majority party |
Powers of the Majority Leader |
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1. Senators are there longer and are more independent with fewer rules 2. Senate has no Rules Committee, after deliberations bills are simply brought to the floor 3. A bill can be stopped before getting to the floor by filibustering |
How does the Senate differ from the House? |
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Congress |
Who has the power to declare war? |
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World War II was the last formal war that was declared by Congress. |
When was the last time that Congress declared war? |
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Congress does not want to have to put full money and resources into a war at the cost of the people. Plus, once Congress declares war it also gives the president special war time powers that they might not want to provide. |
Why is Congress reluctant to declare war? |
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1. Distribution 2. Informational 3. Partisan |
Three Models for Analyzing Congress |