Chapter 5- The Legislative Branch Test Review
In preparing for the test on Chapter 5- the Legislative branch, here are some key terms,
concepts and facts you should know:
1. What was the significance of the Great Compromise? What two Plans did it combine?
2. How many senators are there? What are the formal qualifications for the US Senate? Length of
term?
3. How many members are there in the House of Representative? What are the formal
qualifications? Length of term?
4. The difference between expressed, implied, concurrent, reserved and inherent powers of
Congress. Examples of each.
5. Some familiarity with the expressed powers of Congress- Article I-Section 8.
6. What the term constituent refers to?
7. The amendment that addressed the problem with the Electoral College.
8. The amendment that led to the direct election of senators.
9. Who gets to fill a vacant senate seat?
10. Which house of Congress is the only one that gets to introduce bills having to do with taxes? The
power of the purse.
11. The significance of gerrymandering and reapportionment.
12. Who gets to approve (ratify) treaties? with what majority?
13. Who is the Speaker of the House?
14. The only official role of the vice-president according to the US Constitution.
15. The name for the permanent committees of the House and Senate.
16. What the terms “writ of habeas corpus” and “ex-post facto law” mean.
17. Who serves as the judge of an impeachment trial of the president or vice-president?
18. Which military militia is governed by concurrent powers of both the state and federal
government?
19. What the role of a “rider” is in the legislative process.
20. The purpose of a conference committee.
21. The role of the president in the legislative process? what a pocket-veto is? and how congress
checks the power of the president when it comes to laws?
22. Which body of Congress choses the president if no one wins a majority of the electoral vote?
23. The minimum number of representative in the House that each state must have?
24. The role of committees in the legislative process.
25. The power of incumbency.
26. The following terms: roll-call vote; whip, filibuster, cloture, quorum, commerce clause; necessary
& proper clause (elastic clause); appropriation
27. Single member districts
28. How officers in Congress are selected
29. How the power of congress has changed over time.
30. The basic difference between loose and strict construction of the US Constitution.
31. The difference between direct and indirect taxes.
32. Examples of expressed powers (Article I- Section 8, clauses 1-18)