Congress as a Career
The current holder of a particular public office.
What is the incumbent?
This chamber’s presiding officer is elected by its members and always belongs to the majority party, being described as the most powerful elected official aside from the president.
What is the House of Representatives?
Permanent congressional committees with responsibility for a particular area of public policy.
What are standing committees?
A proposed legislative act within Congress or another legislature.
What is a bill?
The three major functions of congress.
What is lawmaking, representation and oversight?
The process by which the party in power draws election district boundaries in a way that enhances the reelection prospects of its candidates.
What is gerrymandering?
At the start of each two-year congressional term, party members in each chamber do this to select their leaders for the upcoming session.
What is hold an election?
The policy area in which a particular congressional committee is authorized to act.
What is jurisdiction?
This committee, which has no equivalent in the Senate, controls the scheduling of House bills and the conditions under which they will be debated.
What is the House Rules Committee?
For a bill to pass, it must get the support of this two-termed phrase.
What is a simple majority?
This type of rare but powerful election context, such as immigration, gun control and income inequality, can make incumbents more vulnerable.
What are disruptive issues?
Unlike in the House, the person officially tasked with presiding over the Senate is rarely present or voting, attending mainly when there is a tie.
Who is the vice president?
This 1946 law requires bills in Congress to be referred to the relevant committee based on the policy area addressed.
What is the Legislative Reorganization Act?
A parliamentary maneuver that, if a three-fifths majority votes for it, limits Senate debate to 30 hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster.
What is a cloture?
Unless the House and Senate can work out the differences on their bills, drafts are referred to this committee, formed to bargain over the differences.
What is a conference committee?
In 22 of the last 25 of these elections, the president’s party has lost House seats, often due to turnout decline and public discontent.
What are midterm elections?
These amendments, allowed in the Senate but not in the House, can be added to a bill even if they’re unrelated to the bill’s main subject.
What are riders?
In the Senate, this system for choosing committee chairs rewards continuous service on one committee and limits open rivalry for leadership posts.
What is the seniority system?
One House member of one party talking to a member of the Senate from a party, supporting each other’s bills in respective houses.
What is logrolling?
This occurs when a president lets a bill sit unsigned for 10 days.
What is a pocket veto?
California Congressman Duncan Hunter resigned in 2020 after using campaign funds to pay for family travel, including flying this family pet across the country.
What is a rabbit?
This informal Republican guideline advises the Speaker to only bring bills to the floor that have majority support from their own party.
What is the Hastert Rule?
A bill that overlaps several policy areas can provoke this kind of dispute among congressional committees over which one has the right to handle it.
What is a turf war?
The process of adding monetary persuasion to a piece of legislation to ensure its passage.
What is pork-barrel legislation?
The three subcommittees of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
What are the Primary Health and Retirement Security, Children and Families, and Employment and Workplace Safety?