| A | B |
|---|
| bicameral legislature | a two chamber legislature; the United States Congress is made up of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives |
| session | a period of time during which a legislature meets to conduct business |
| censure | a vote of formal disapproval of a member's actions |
| gerrymander | to draw a district's boundaries to gain an advantage in elections |
| incumbent | elected official that is already in office |
| constituents | a person whom a member of Congress has been elected to represent |
| caucus | a closed meeting; a private meeting of party leaders to choose candidates for office |
| majority leader | the Speaker's top assistant whose job is to help plan the majority party's legislative program and to steer important bills through the House |
| whips | assistants to the party floor leader in the legislature |
| bill | a proposed law |
| calendars | a schedule that lists the order in which bills will be considered in Congress |
| quorum | the minimum number of members who must be present to permit a legislative body to take official action |
| president pro tempore | the Senate member, elected by the Senate, who stands in as president of the Senate in the absence of the vice president |
| filibuster | a method of defeating a bill in the Senate by stalling the legislative process and preventing a vote |
| cloture | a procedure that allows each senator to speak only 1 hour on a bill under debate |
| standing committee | a permanent committee in Congress that oversees bills that deal with certain kinds of issues |
| subcommittee | a group within a standing committee that specializes in a subcategory of its standing committee's responsibility |
| joint committee | a committee of the House and the Senate that usually acts as a study group and reports its findings back to the House and the Senate |
| select committee | a temporary committee formed to study one specific issue and report its findings to the Senate or the House |
| conference committee | a temporary joint committee set up when the House and the Senate have passed different versions of the same bill |
| seniority system | a system that gives the member of the majority party with the longest uninterrupted service on a particular committee the leadership of that committee |
| personal staff | the people who work directly fpr individual senators and representatives |
| committee staff | the people who work for House and Senate committees |
| administrative assistant | member of a lawmaker's personal staff who runs the lawmaker's office, supervises the schedule, and gives advice |
| legislative assistant | a member of a lawmaker's personal staff that makes certain that the lawmaker is well informed about proposed legislation |
| caseworker | a member of a lawmaker's personal staff who handles requests for help from constituents |
