CHAPTER 6: THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
PART ONE: Basic Information
1. The primary role of Congress is to __________________________.
2. The ___________________________________ and the __________________ are the
two houses of Congress.
3. There are __________ in the House of Representatives.
4. There are ___________ in the Senate.
5. The leader of the House of Representatives is the ________________________. This
person always comes from the majority party in the House.
6. The Senate has _________ leaders.
a. Ceremonial leader:_________________________
b. Actual leader (defined by the Constitution):_____________________
7. Floor leaders are those who have influence in the party. Party whips are those who
assist the floor leaders in getting the job done.
PART TWO: Elections
8. Members of Congress are elected to serve a specific district. The people who live in that
Congressman/woman’s district are called ________________________________.
9. ________________________________: is when states draw up their congressional
districts to favor a specific political party. It’s illegal.
10. The census is done every ________ years, or every decade. While this is done for
several reasons, the main reason is it determines if the number of seats a state has in
the __________________________________________ needs to be adjusted.
PART THREE: Congress at Work
11.Every year, Congress has numerous ________________ (ideas for laws) they deal with.
The overwhelming majority of this work is done through ______________________,
which is a group. There THREE types of committees;
a. _____________________: a permanent committee
b. _____________________: a temporary committee
c. _____________________: consists of congressmen/women from both the House
and the Senate.
12. The committee a Congressman/woman gets put on depends on several factors. One of
the main criteria is their _____________________________, or how long they’ve
served. Another factor is their expertise in a specific area.
a. Each committee has a leader, which is called the
___________________________.
13. ___________________________________ is the work a Congressman/woman does to
benefit their district and their constituents. This is a critical area since their performance
in this area usually determines if they’re re-elected or not.
14. A ___________________________________________ is a Congressional bill or a
project that only benefits a select few. These are controversial since everyone (the
taxpayers) are footing the bill for these projects.
PART FOUR: Powers of Congress
15. Congress has two types of powers; ____________________ (law-making) and
__________________________________ (non-law-making).
a. There are two types of legislative powers;
i. _______________________: powers that are specifically listed in the
Constitution
ii. ________________________: powers that are not specifically stated.
Congress has these powers through the “Necessary and Proper” Clause –
which are also called the ELASTIC CLAUSE.
16. The primary non-legislative power of Congress is the power to investigate those in
government who commit wrongful acts.
17.Impeachment (see vocab) is a two-step process;
a. STEP ONE: The ______________________________________ vote to determine
if the accused has committed a wrongful act
b. STEP TWO: The ____________________________ votes to determine the
punishment if the accused was impeached in step 1.
18. The __________________________ has to approve the majority of actions of the
President. Reason being, this is a "check" on the President's power.
19. Congress has three limits to its power....
a. They cannot suspend a _______________________________________. Habeas
corpus is a court order requiring suspects to be brought before a judge to have
the charges against them explained to them.
b. They cannot pass a ____________________________________. This is a law that
would punish someone without a trial.
c. They cannot pass ___________________________________. These are laws that
would allow someone to be punished for committing an act BEFORE it was against
the law.
PART FIVE: How a Bill Becomes a Law
20. STEP ONE: ________________________________________. Bill is basically introduced
once a bill is deposited in a "hopper". Bills can originate in either the House or Senate.
21. STEP TWO: ____________________________________. The bill is sent to a committee,
which works on writing it up and preparing the details.
22.STEP THREE: _________________________. The bill is discussed in both the House and
the Senate. Each has different ways of doing this.
a. House: members have time limits on speeches (2 minutes) concerning the bill.
This is due to the large population that makes up the House of Representatives.
b. Senate: no time limits on speeches. Some senators will try to use this to their
advantage by trying to filibuster a bill (non-stop talking) - which the goal of that
would be to prevent the bill from moving to a vote (which kills it). A filibuster can
be blocked with a vote of cloture (requires 3/5ths vote - or 60 senators) which
puts a one-hour limit on senate speeches regarding that bill.
23. STEP FOUR: _____________________________. After debates in both houses, the bill is
voted on in both the House and Senate. Before the bill can go to the next step - the bill
must be exactly the same. If there are differences in the House and Senate bills, a
___________________________________ has to be formed to resolve the differences.
24.STEP FIVE: __________________________________________. When the President gets
the bill from Congress, they have three options;
a. Can sign it into law.
b. Can __________________ it. The bill is dead - unless Congress votes to override
it, which requires a two-thirds vote from BOTH houses.
c. Can ignore it for 10 DAYS. What happens depends on if Congress is still in session
after day10.
i. IF Congress is still in session = bill becomes law without signature
ii. IF Congress IS NOT in session = bill dies, no way to override. This is called a
pocket veto.