Committees
This type of committee is temporary and usually called upon to investigate an issue, sometimes in response to a crisis or scandal.
What is a select/special committee?
This term describes a district in which voters of a minority ethnicity constitute an electoral majority within that electoral district.
What is a majority-minority district?
This individual is the most powerful member of Congress.
Who is the Speaker of the House?
This government official is responsible for submitting an annual, comprehensive budget proposal to Congress.
Who is the president?
What is a committee?
In this permanent type of committee, members of Congress look at proposed laws and important topics, as well as recommend measures for consideration by their respective chambers.
What is a standing committee?
This term describes the drawing of district boundaries into strange shapes to benefit a political party.
What is partisan gerrymandering?
What is the Senate?
This type of spending is "locked in" and consumes the majority of yearly federal spending.
What is mandatory spending?
This term describes the procedure through which senators can end debate on a bill and proceed to action, provided 3/5 of senators agree to it.
What is cloture?
This type of committee consists of members of both the House and Senate, usually working to conduct studies and gather information for Congress.
What are joint committees?
What are state legislatures?
The confirmation of these government officials is a power that is exclusively granted to the Senate in Article II of the Constitution.
Who are ambassadors, Supreme Court justices, and members of the president's Cabinet?
This term describes what occurs when the federal government takes in less money than it spends.
What is a budget deficit?
These are the three choices the president has for each bill that lands on their desk.
What are signing it into law, vetoing it, and inaction?
This type of temporary committee resolves differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill.
What are conference committees?
This SCOTUS case ruled racial gerrymandering as unconstitutional.
What is Shaw v. Reno (1993)?
If a member of Congress votes against a bill that is popular in their district because their top donors are against it, they have taken on this role.
What is a trustee role?
These committees set the budgets for federal departments, agencies, and bureaus.
What are the House & Senate appropriations committees?
Only this person/group of people may introduce a bill.
Who is a member of Congress?
Because of the size of Congress, this powerful committee is necessary to determine when a bill will be subject to debate and vote on the House floor, how long the debate will last, and whether amendments will be allowed on the floor.
What is the House Rules Committee?
This SCOTUS case ruled against malapportionment, stating that each congressional district should have roughly the same number of constituents.
What is Baker v. Carr (1962)?
This term describes legislation that directs specific funds to projects within districts or states.
What is pork barrel spending (earmarks)?
Formally, only this chamber of Congress may introduce revenue bills (proposed rules about how the government collects and spends it funds).
What is the House of Reps?
This term describes a motion filed by a member of Congress to move a bill out of a committee onto the floor of the House of Reps for a vote (it is rarely successful).
What is a discharge petition?