| A | B |
|---|
| Apportionment | is a dividing of representatives from the House of Reps to each state according to its population |
| Speaker of the House | the leader of the House of Representatives & comes from the majority party |
| President Pro Tempore | stands in for the Vice-Pres to lead the Senate when the VP is away on business |
| Majority Leader | The leader of the party that holds a majority of seats in either house of Congress |
| Minority Leader | The leader of the political party that holds a minority of seats in either house of Congress |
| Party Whip | assistants to the party leaders in Congress & they do the legwork of the party |
| Bill | a prosposed law |
| Law | a rule passed by a government |
| Veto | President can turn down a bill sent to him by Congress – part of checks & balances |
| Committee System | how Congress gets its work done & allows Congressmen to concentrate on certain issues instead of trying to know everything but putting them on committees |
| Seniority System | the longer you have been in Congress the better committee jobs you get |
| Filibuster | a lengthy speech to delay the passage of a bill or to get its sponsor to withdraw it |
| Cloture | limits the amount of debate on an issue in the Senate |
| Impeachment | the act of formally charging an official with a crime |
| Censure | a public reprimand of a Congressmen from the rest of Congress for a wrongdoing |
| Expulsion | the kicking out of a public official |
| Writ of Habeas Corpus | a court order that requires police to bring a prisoner to court to explain why they are holding that person |
| Bill of Attainder | laws that punish a person without a trial |
| Ex Post Facto | laws that make an act a crime after the act has been committed |
| Enumerated Powers | the listed powers of Congress in the Constitution |
| Reserved Powers | powers not given to the national gov’t and are given to the state gov’ts |
| Elastic Clause | says that Congress has the authority to do whatever is necessary and proper to carry out its job |
| Implied Powers | any powers that Congress has due to the elastic clause |
| Expressed Powers | the listed powers of Congress in the Constitution |
| Supremacy Clause | states the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and no law can be passed that goes against it |
| Casework | Social work devoted to the needs of individual clients or cases |
| Franking Privilege | free postage of materials for a Congressmen to his constituents, while in office |
| Special Interest Group | groups of people who share a point of view about an issue & unite to promote it |
| Lobbyist | people hired by a special interest group to sway Congressmen or officials to vote the way the group wants |
| Pork Barrel Project | the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents |
