Qualifications & Terms
To serve in this chamber, you must be at least 25 years old and a citizen for 7 years.
What is the House of Representatives?
This type of permanent committee is where most bills are first sent and where most bills "die."
What is a standing committee?
This power allows the government to take private property for public use with just compensation.
What is Eminent Domain?
This is the term for a two-house legislature.
What is bicameral?
This is the most powerful leadership position in the House of Representatives.
Who is the Speaker of the House?
This is the length of a Senator's term.
What is six years?
This is the term for when a committee sets a bill aside and ignores it, effectively killing it.
What is "pigeonholed"?
These powers are specifically listed and written out in the Constitution.
What are Expressed Powers?
In the removal process, this house of Congress has the sole power to "impeach" (bring charges).
What is the House of Representatives?
This unwritten rule gives the most important committee chairs to the members with the longest service records.
What is the Seniority Rule?
The Framers gave this chamber longer terms to insulate them from the pressures of public opinion.
What is the Senate?
This committee is known as the "Traffic Cop" because it controls which bills reach the House floor.
What is the House Rules Committee?
This founder was a "strict constructionist" who believed the federal government should have very limited power.
Who is Thomas Jefferson?
A President might threaten to call one of these to force Congress to deal with an emergency or a high-priority bill.
What is a Special Session?
This is a common criticism of the Seniority Rule.
What is "it ignores ability" or "it discourages younger members"?
To serve in the Senate, you must be a U.S. citizen for this many years.
What is nine years?
This temporary joint committee is formed to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of a bill.
What is a Conference Committee?
Congress gets its foreign affairs power from expressed powers and from the fact that the U.S. is this type of entity.
What is a sovereign state?
This chamber of Congress acts as the court and jury during an impeachment trial.
What is the Senate?
This is the tactic of "talking a bill to death" used only in the Senate.
What is a filibuster?
This is the minimum age required to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
What is 30 years old?
House leaders use these to schedule the order in which bills will be debated on the floor.
What are Calendars?
hese two specific powers (one for authors, one for inventors) help the public by encouraging innovation.
What are Copyrights and Patents?
This unwritten custom means the Senate will block a presidential appointee if a Senator from the President's party in that state objects.
What is Senatorial Courtesy?
When a bill has been passed by a chamber and printed in its final form, it is said to be this
What is engrossed?