Unit 3 The Legislative Branch of Government

1. Unit 3The Legislative Branch of Government The First Quiz Review

2. How many people are there in Congress?

3. How many people are there in Congress? 435 and 100, in the House and the Senate

4. What are Standing Committees?

5. What are Standing Committees? Permanent & long standing committees, they study new bills that fall under its jurisdiction, investigates problems that need legislative attention, each has one ore more sub committees.

6. What are Conference Committees?

7. What are Conference Committees? Joint committees with members of both houses, they seek to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the same bill.

8. What is the Reapportionment Act of 1929?

9. What is the Reapportionment Act of 1929? Fixed the size of the House of Representatives an its current size of 435.

10. What are special sessions of Congress?

11. What are special sessions of Congress? Called by the President, for only special occasions, like war.

12. How long is a term of Congress?

13. How long is a term of Congress? Two years, between the two (national) elections.

14. Who is the President of the Senate?

15. Who is the President of the Senate? The Vice President of the United States (this is only one of his two constitutionally specified duties), he may not engage in debate, and can only vote in the event of a tie.

16. What do Party Leaders do?

17. What do Party Leaders do? Whether you’re the majority or minority party, manage debate on all bills, coordinate the work of the committees, chose the speakers who will speak in debate of a bill, and work with the Rules Committee to move bills out onto the floor.

18. What is the Great Compromise?

19. What is the Great Compromise? That “holy cow, look at what we did” moment in our history when we came up with the Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise) where we solved the problem of large state v. small state representation in Congress.

20. What are the practical reasons why we have two houses of Congress?

21. What are the practical reasons why we have two houses of Congress? Unicameral legislatures have not worked well, framers thought 2 houses were essential to the system of checks and balances, solved the dispute over large state and small state representation.

22. What are the advantages of a two-house legislature?

23. What are the advantages of a two-house legislature? Serves as a break-avoids hasty legislation, prevents sectional legislation-a bill that benefits on house may be killed by another, provides different view points-short term of house members provides for immediate needs…, provides time for review of bills-most bills take time to get through both houses, gives more time for study of bills.

24. How have we interpreted the Constitution, in regards to the power of Congress?

25. How have we interpreted the Constitution, in regards to the power of Congress? We’ve taken a loose interpretation, meaning we’ve allowed some latitude in what Congress does, which allows Congress to do more.

26. What does the Speaker of the House do?

27. What does the Speaker of the House do? He or she is the majority leader, the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, and is Third in line for Presidential succession.

28. The End