| A | B |
|---|
| legislative powers | the power to make laws |
| apportionment | the proportional distribution of congressional seats among the states |
| census | a counting of the number of people in a certain area |
| gerrymandering | giving the party control of as many congressional seats as possible |
| majority party | the party with the most members in the House |
| president pro-tem | the presiding officer in the Senate in the absence of the Vice President |
| bipartisan | two-party |
| seniority system | giving the committee chair to the member of the party who has had the most years of continuous service on that committee |
| caucus | a private meeting of political party members to decide on a policy or to choose candidates |
| quorum | required number to do business |
| censure | to officially condemn a member for misconduct |
| congressional immunity | freedom from arrest or slander charges for Congressmen during a session |
| legislating | lawmaking |
| bill | a proposed new law |
| pigeonholed | a bill is put aside and purposely forgotten in committee |
| discharge petition | a way to get a dead bill out of committee by getting a simple majority of signatures on a petition |
| filibuster | an attempt to kill a bill by stalling the vote on it through long speeches |
| Cloture Rule | 3/5 vote of the Senate to limit a Senator to a one hour speech on a certain bill |
| pocket veto | the President refuses to sign a bill at the end of a congressional session by not signing it and letting it expire |
| oversight | congressional monitoring of the bureaucracy to make sure that the laws are being faithfully executed |
| implied powers | powers not specifically given, but indicated in the expressed powers |
| expressed powers | powers given formally to Congress in clauses 1 - 17 of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution |
| Necessary and Proper Clause | allows Congress to execute powers not mentioned specifically in the Constitution |
