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| The system of having two chambers within one legislative body, like the House and Senate in Congress. |
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| Legislative appropiations that benefit specifc constituents, created with the aim of helping local representatives win reelection. |
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| An inability to enact legislation because of partisan conflict within Congress or between Congress and the president. |
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| The idea that congressional behavior is centrally motivated by members' desire for reelection. |
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| Descriptive Representation |
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Definition
| When a member of Congress shares the characteristics (like gender, race, religion, or ethnicity) of his or her constituents. |
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| Substantive Representation |
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Definition
| When a member of Congress represents constituents' interests and policy concerns. |
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| A member of Congress who represents constituents' interests while also taking into account national, collective, and moral concerns that sometimes cause the member to vote against the preference of a majority of constituents. |
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| Delegate (Congressional Role) |
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Definition
| A member of Congress who loyally represents constituents; direct interests. |
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| A member of Congress who acts as a delegate in issues that constituents care about (like civil rights) and as a trustee on more complex or less salient issues (like some foreign policy or regulatory matters). |
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| Redrawing the geographic boundaries of legislative districts. This happens every ten years to ensure that districts remain roughly equal in population. |
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| The process of assigning the 435 seats in the House to the states based on increases or decreases in state population. |
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| Attempting to use the process of redrawing district boundaries to benefit a political party, protect incumbents, or change the proportion of minority voters in a district. |
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| The relative infrequency with which members of Congress are defeated in their attempts for reelection. |
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| Assistance provided by members of Congress to their constituents in solving problems with the federal bureaucracy or addressing other specific concerns. |
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| Actions taken by a member of Congress that are unrelated to government issues but have the primary goal of making a positive impression on the public, like sending holiday cards to constituents and appearing in parades. |
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| The acceptance of credit by a member of Congress for legislation that specifically benefits his constituents. |
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| Any public statement in which a member of Congress makes her views on an issue known to her constituents. |
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| The informal congressional norm of distributing the benefits of legislation in a way that serves the interests of as many states and districts as possible. |
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| The informal congressional norm whereby a member votes for a bill that he might not otherwise support because a colleague strongly favors it- in exchange for the colleague's vote for a bill that the member feels strongly about (also known as logrolling) |
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| Federally funded local projects attached to bills passed through Congress |
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| The expertise of a member of Congress on a specific issue or area of policy. Specialization is more common in the House than in the Senate, where members tend to be policy generalists. |
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| The informal congressional norm of choosing the member who has served the longest on a particular committee to be the committee chair. |
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| The elected leader of the House of Representatives. |
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| The elected head of the party holding the majority of seats in the House or Senate. |
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| An organization of House leaders who work to disseminate information and promote party unity in voting on legislation. |
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| The elected head of the party holding the minority of seats in the House or Senate. |
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Term
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| A largely symbolic position usually held by the most senior member of the majority party in the Senate. |
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| A recorded vote on legislation; members may vote yes, no, abstain, or present. |
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| A vote in which the majortiy of one party opposes the position of the majority of the other party. |
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| The extent to which members of Congress in the same party vote together on party votes. |
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| Committees that are a permanent part of the House or Senate structure, holding more importance and authority than other committees. |
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| Committees in the House or Senate created to address a specific issue for one or two terms. |
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| Committees that contain members of both the House and Senate but have limited authority. |
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| Temporary committees created to negotiate differences between the House and Senate versions of a piece of legislation that has passed through both chambers. |
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| The idea that members of Congress will join committees that best serve the interests of their districts and that committee members will support each other's legislation. |
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| The idea that having committees in Congress made up of experts on specific policy areas helps to ensure wellinformed policy decisions. |
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| One of the steps through which a bill becomes a law, in which the final wording of the bill is determined. |
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| The president's rejection of a bill that has been passed by Congress. A veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate. |
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| The automatic death of a bill passed by the House and Senate when the president fails to sign the bill in the last ten days of a legislative session. |
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Term
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| Large bills that often cover several topics and may contain extraneous, or pork-barrel, projects. |
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| One way of moving a piece of legislation to the top of the agenda in the House: debate on the bill is limited to forty minutes, amendments are not allowed, and the bill must pass by a two-thirds vote. |
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| A procedure through which the Senate can limit the amount of time spent debating a bill (cutting off a filibuster), if a supermajority of sixty senators agree. |
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| A tactic used by senators to block a bill by continuing to hold the floor and speak- under the Senate rule of unlimited debate- until the bill's supporters back down. |
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| Conditions placed on a legislative debaate by the House Rules Committee prohibiting the addition of amendments to a bill. |
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| Conditions placed on a legislative debate by the House Rules committee allowing the addition of relevant amendments to a bill. |
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| Conditions placed on a legislative debate by the House Rules Committee allowing certain amendments to a bill while barring others. |
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| A form of oversight in which Congress overturns bureaucratic decisions. |
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