California
Executive Departments
Civil Service
Federal Budget
Wild Card
100

California elected officer who fills a role equivalent to the vice president.

What is lieutenant governor?

100
Office that prepares the president's yearly budget.

What is Office of Management and Budget?

100

Term for sector of workforce staffed by unelected government bureaucrats.

What is civil service?

100

The person who introduces the federal budget.

What is the president?

100

The type of budget spending that doesn't require yearly reauthorization by Congress.

What is mandatory spending?

200

Power held by the California governor that the president doesn't have.

What is line-item veto?

200

The FCC is an example of this kind of government organization.

What is independent regulatory commission?

200

A system in which jobs and promotions are awarded for political reasons rather than for merit or competence.

What is the patronage system or spoils system?

200

The largest source of revenue for the federal budget.

What is personal income tax?

200

A financial instrument which the government promises to pay back with interest.

What is a bond?

300

The second-most powerful elected officer in California.

What is attorney general?

300

The USPS, Amtrak, and PBS are examples of this.

What is a government corporation?

300

This law created a federal civil service system to ensure that government employment would be based on open, competitive examinations and merit.

What is the 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Act?

300

The federal fiscal year starts on this date every year.

What is October 1st?

300

When Congress makes sure bureaucrats are implementing laws correctly.

What is oversight?

400

Name for the California governor's powers to shape the executive branch.

What is independent authority?

400

NASA is an example of one of these.

What is an independent executive agency?

400

One reason why critics sought to replace the spoils system.

What is government corruption; bureaucracy was staffed by inexperienced workers; bureaucracy was inefficient? (any one of these answers would work)

400

Passed by Congress, it's the blueprint for how the federal government spends money every year; the president doesn't sign it.

What is the budget resolution?

400

One way the Federal Reserve can reduce the amount of money in circulation. 

What is selling bonds; raising interest rates; raising reserve requirement? (any one of these would qualify)

500

Usually appointed by California city councils, this position oversees a city's bureaucracy.

What is city manager?

500

Name for unofficial alliance between congressional committees, interest groups, and executive agencies/departments; outsiders are usually unable gain access.

What is iron triangle?

500

An agency of the United States government that conducts competitive exams, places applicants in jobs, and maintains the administrative functions of the civil service.

What is the Office of Personnel Management?

500

The congressional committee (there's one in both the House of Representatives and Senate) primarily responsible for creating spending bills.

What is Appropriations Committee?

500

An important U.S. Supreme Court case about the government's power to create regulatory agencies.

What is Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States (1935)?

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