Exam 11: The Congress

One of the most important functions of _____ is its oversight of the executive branch and its many federal departments and agencies.

A(n) _________ is defined as someone who is already in office. A) nominee B) partisan C) incumbent D) sophomore

_____ is the second part of the budgeting process in which Congress determines how many dollars will actually be spent in a given year on a particular government activity.

Identify a true statement about the apportionment of House seats.

Discuss the tasks undertaken by the majority leader and the minority leader of the House of Representatives.

When Congress is unable to pass a complete budget by the beginning of the fiscal year, it usually passes _____, which enable the executive agencies to keep on doing whatever they were doing the previous year with the same amount of funding.

If, by choosing to vote, the Speaker of the House creates a tie, _____.

Which of the following statements is true of a congressional committee?

Today, under Senate Rule 22, _____ senators must sign a petition requesting cloture.

In the context of the bicameral legislature of Congress, the framers of the U.S. Constitution:

The Supreme Court has ruled that state-level attempts to impose _________ on members of the U.S. House or Senate are unconstitutional. A) age limits B) term limits C) cloture limits D) participation limits

Where a party's voters are scarce, the boundaries of a district can be drawn to include as many of the party's voters as possible. This is a characteristic of _____.

The U.S. Constitution requires that senators be elected:

Explain the trustee and instructed-delegate views of representation. Give an example of each.

Identify a difference between House members and Senate members.

The _____ normally proposes time limits on debate for any bill.

In the context of the legislative process, discuss how a bill is referred to committees.

In the past, members of Congress often took advantage of the vote to raise the debt ceiling to _____, to show off their opposition to federal spending.

As a result of the rule limiting the size of the House of Representatives to _____ members, U.S. congressional districts on average now have very substantial populations.

To ensure equal representation in the House of Representatives, each congressional district must have contiguous boundaries and must be _________. A) geographically compact B) politically unified C) politically monolithic D) malapportioned