Deck 9: Congress

Question 1

Between 1995 and 2006, the number of congressional earmarks

A) remained the same.
B) dropped to nearly zero.
C) nearly doubled.
D) increased by a factor of 10.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What is the most common occupation among members of Congress before coming to Congress?

A) business executive
B) lobbyist
C) college professor
D) lawyer

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The "sophomore surge" refers to the

A) fact that many members of Congress lose their reelection campaigns after their second term in office.
B) tendency for college students to intern with their local members of Congress during the summer between their sophomore and junior years in college.
C) fact that most members of Congress leave office after serving only two years.
D) tendency for candidates to win a higher percentage of the vote when seeking future terms in office.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In recent years, about ________ percent of U.S. House incumbents won reelection.

A) 50
B) 66
C) 80
D) 95

Question 5

Following the 2006 elections, ________ became speaker of the U.S. House.

A) Dennis Hastert
B) Newt Gingrich
C) Nancy Pelosi
D) John Boehner

Question 6

A U.S. senator has a ________-year term.

A) two
B) four
C) six
D) eight

Question 7

What did the Supreme Court justices declare in Miller v. Johnson (1995)?

A) Districts could not be drawn to favor the incumbent candidate.
B) The racial composition of a district could not be the predominant factor when redistricting.
C) It was not unconstitutional for states to use an unelected, nonpartisan committee to redistrict.
D) The use of computer technologies to draw districts that will favor one party over another is unconstitutional.

Question 8

The process of allocating congressional seats among the 50 states is called

A) redistricting.
B) gerrymandering.
C) redlining.
D) apportionment.

Question 9

Over the past several decades, the ________ and the ________ have benefited most from apportionment.

A) Northeast; Midwest
B) Northeast; South
C) South; Midwest
D) South; West

Question 10

Under the original Constitution, senators

A) served four-year terms.
B) were appointed by state legislatures.
C) were selected by the federal judiciary.
D) could serve only two terms.

Question 11

A senator or representative running for reelection is called the

A) constituent.
B) incumbent.
C) trustee.
D) delegate.

Question 12

In each House district there are approximately ________ people.

A) 250,000
B) 700,000
C) 1,300,000
D) 2,500,000

Question 13

In 2011,

A) the House of Representatives dramatically increased the number of earmarks in their spending bills while the Senate dramatically decreased the number of earmarks in their spending bills.
B) the Senate dramatically increased the number of earmarks in their spending bills while the House of Representatives dramatically decreased the number of earmarks in their spending bills.
C) both the House of Representatives and the Senate dramatically increased the number of earmarks in their spending bills.
D) the House and the Senate agreed to a two-year moratorium on earmarks in spending bills.

Question 14

The term pork barrel refers to

A) any piece of legislation that changes the number of agricultural subsidies provided to farmers by the federal government.
B) the collective set of law that regulates America's meat exports.
C) bills that grant a special privilege to a person named in the bill.
D) appropriations made by legislative bodies for local projects that are often not needed but that are created so that local representatives can win reelection in their home districts.

Question 15

The number of seats in the House of Representatives has been fixed at ____ since ____.

A) 100; 1790
B) 100; 1929
C) 435; 1929
D) 435; 1959

Question 16

Gerrymandering refers to the

A) manipulation of electoral districts to serve the interests of a particular group.
B) practice whereby legislators trade their support or opposition on one bill to get the support of another legislator on a different bill.
C) investigations of the executive branch by members of Congress.
D) tactic used by members of the Senate to prevent action on legislation they oppose by continuously holding the floor and speaking until the majority backs down.

Question 17

Which sort of representation is based on the principle that if two individuals are similar in background, character, interests, and perspectives, then one could correctly represent the other's views?

A) agency
B) sociological
C) trustee
D) delegate

Question 18

________ bills are one of Congress's favorite vehicles for pork-barrel spending.

A) Education
B) Veteran's affairs
C) Health care
D) Highway

Question 19

Republican House member Randy "Duke" Cunningham was

A) sent to jail in 2005 for accepting bribes by companies hoping to receive earmarks in return.
B) the primary supporter of a bill that would have prohibited the use of earmarks in Congress.
C) the initiator of a lawsuit heard by the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of earmarks.
D) the first member of Congress to propose that representatives publish a list of all earmark requests on a single website.

Question 20

Congress is a ________ legislature with ________ members.

A) unicameral; 342
B) bicameral; 535
C) bicameral; 100
D) bicameral; 275

Question 21

Who has the most real power in the Senate?

A) the president of the Senate
B) the majority and minority leaders
C) the Senate president pro tempore
D) the chair of the Rules Committee

Question 22

After the 2014 elections, the Republican Party controlled

A) both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
B) the House of Representatives but not the Senate.
C) the Senate but not the House of Representatives.
D) neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate.

Question 23

Who decides which committee assignments members of the House of Representatives receive?

A) the Speaker of the House
B) each party's own steering and policy committee
C) The president selects for members of his or her own party, and either the House majority or minority leader selects for opposition members.
D) each party's whip

Question 24

Race became a major factor in drawing congressional district lines as a result of

A) Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
B) Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
C) the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder.
D) the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Question 25

In the House of Representatives, what is the relationship between the majority leader and the Speaker of the House?

A) The majority leader is subordinate to the Speaker of the House.
B) They are the same office.
C) The majority leader is superior in formal powers to the Speaker of the House.
D) The majority leader has the same powers as the Speaker of the House but is a different office.

Question 26

One reason why redistricting is controversial is that

A) those charged with drawing districts use sophisticated computer technologies to come up with the most favorable district boundaries.
B) incumbents never lose when districts are redrawn.
C) it is unclear whether districts have to be drawn in such a way that each district includes roughly the same number of people.
D) interest groups and PACs exert a great deal of influence over the specific shape of each district.

Question 27

Which of the following best describes a way in which the House differs from the Senate?

A) The House is more centralized and organized than the Senate.
B) The House is a looser and more deliberative body than the Senate.
C) The members of the House are much less specialized than the members of the Senate.
D) The House has a much greater level of turnover in its membership than the Senate.

Question 28

The jurisdiction of standing committees

A) is related to a specific geographic region.
B) is defined by the subject matter of legislation, which often parallels the major cabinet departments or agencies.
C) is determined by the different political parties.
D) often overlaps with the jurisdiction of select committees.

Question 29

What are the most common private bills proposed in Congress?

A) bills giving individuals or corporations tax relief
B) bills for permanent visas or citizenship for foreign nationals
C) bills for defense contracts in a representative's district
D) bills that declare certain foreign nationals enemies of the United States

Question 30

The president pro tempore of the Senate is usually

A) the minority party leader with the greatest seniority.
B) the minority party leader with the least seniority.
C) selected directly by the president.
D) the majority party member with the greatest seniority.

Question 31

Which of the following statements best describes the representation of women and minorities in the U.S. Congress?

A) Representation of women and minorities has decreased by one-third since the 1970s.
B) Representation of women and minorities has increased over the past two decades but is not comparable to their proportions in the general population.
C) Women are underrepresented in Congress, but there is a disproportionate representation of minorities in Congress.
D) Since the mid-1990s, the number of women and minorities in Congress roughly reflects their proportions in the general population.

Question 32

How is the Speaker of the House determined?

A) The vice president of the United States is also Speaker of the House.
B) The representative with the longest tenure in the House is the Speaker of the House.
C) The elected leader of the majority party in the House is the Speaker.
D) The president selects the Speaker of the House from the majority party in the House.

Question 33

Senators' longer terms of office and larger, more heterogeneous constituencies makes them more

A) attuned to the needs of groups and interests organized on a city or countywide basis.
B) likely to consider new ideas and better able to act as the agents for groups and interests organized on a statewide or national basis.
C) likely to serve existing interests than to bring together new coalitions of interests.
D) likely to spend their time thinking about and running for reelection.

Question 34

A number of states have responded to concerns about partisan gerrymandering by

A) banning redistricting.
B) taking redistricting power away from their states' legislatures and giving it to independent citizen commissions.
C) taking redistricting power away from independent commissions and giving it to their states' legislatures.
D) taking redistricting power away from independent commissions and giving it to their states' governors.

Question 35

One reason some people support the establishment of term limits in the House and Senate is that it will

A) decrease the power and influence of interest groups.
B) decrease turnover in Congress and lead to more experienced legislators.
C) increase turnover and get new faces into Congress.
D) limit the power and influence of the judiciary.

Question 36

The so-called bridge to nowhere was important because it became a symbol of

A) the problems with Congress's lack of racial diversity.
B) the Supreme Court's increasing willingness to overturn acts of Congress.
C) wasteful congressional spending through earmarks.
D) the federal government's ability to effectively respond to infrastructure problems.

Question 37

Congressional organization is influenced by which of the following?

A) parliamentary rules of the House and Senate
B) political parties
C) the committee system
D) all of these are correct

Question 38

The term whip in discussions of Congress refers to

A) a punishment party leaders give when a member of Congress does not vote with the rest of his or her party.
B) a Senate rule that allows 60 senators to immediately end another senator's filibuster.
C) the majority party leader's chief of staff.
D) a party member in the House or Senate responsible for coordinating the party's legislative strategy, building support for key issues, and counting votes.

Question 39

The frequency with which they must seek reelection makes members of the U.S. House of Representatives

A) more responsive to the needs of the elites in the states they represent.
B) less responsive to the needs of the elites in the states they represent.
C) less responsive to the needs of local interest groups in the districts they represent.
D) more responsive to the needs of local interest groups in the districts they represent.

Question 40

What purpose does pork-barrel legislation serve?

A) It funds specific projects and their location within a particular congressional district.
B) It gives agricultural subsidies within a region.
C) It awards special privileges to a person named in the bill.
D) It orders state governments to implement a program without providing funding for doing so.

Question 41

How can Congress override a president's veto?

A) a two-thirds vote in either chamber
B) a two-thirds vote in both chambers
C) a simple majority vote in both chambers
D) A president's veto cannot be overridden according to the U.S. Constitution.

Question 42

The filibuster

A) has never been a frequently used tactic in the U.S. Senate.
B) was rarely used throughout most of American history but has become a frequently used tactic in the U.S. Senate during the last 20 years.
C) was a frequently used tactic in the U.S. Senate throughout most of American history but has almost never been used during the last 20 years.
D) has always been a frequently used tactic in the U.S. Senate.

Question 43

Conference committees are

A) permanent and involve members from both the House and the Senate.
B) temporary and are created to take up an issue that falls between the jurisdiction of existing committees, to highlight an issue, or to investigate a particular problem.
C) permanent and have the power to write and propose legislation.
D) temporary, involve members from both houses of Congress, and are charged with reaching a compromise on legislation once it has been passed by both the House and the Senate.

Question 44

Over what does the House Ways and Means Committee have jurisdiction?

A) taxes, trade, and entitlement programs
B) foreign relations and national security
C) rules governing debate on the floor and committee assignments
D) highways and waterways

Question 45

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was unique among joint committees because it

A) included members of both the House and the Senate.
B) had the power to write and report legislation.
C) was created as a permanent committee.
D) only included members of the House of Representatives.

Question 46

What are the four joint committees in Congress?

A) economic, taxation, library, and printing
B) foreign affairs, welfare, currency, and trade
C) globalization, human rights, employment, and citizenship
D) justice, agriculture, education, and technology

Question 47

Approximately ____ percent of the ____ bills introduced in a typical congressional session die in committee.

A) 50; 1,000
B) 85; 1,000
C) 50; 10,000
D) 85; 10,000

Question 48

How can congressional party leaders secure the unity and cooperation of their members?

A) through committee assignments
B) by providing access to the floor
C) through the whip system
D) All of these are correct

Question 49

What is it called when two members of Congress share no common interests but agree to support each other's bill?

A) filibustering
B) delegating
C) logrolling
D) bargaining

Question 50

A filibuster allows members of the Senate to

A) refer a bill to multiple committees.
B) avoid a conference committee.
C) prevent a vote on a bill by speaking continuously on the floor.
D) add amendments to any bill at any time.

Question 51

The framers gave the power to introduce "money bills" to the House of Representatives but not the Senate because they believed that

A) the Senate was too small in size to make good decisions about taxing and spending.
B) the chamber closest to the people should exercise greater authority over taxing and spending.
C) every state should not have equal influence over taxing and spending decisions.
D) taxing and spending were not important issues and the Senate should focus its attention on the country's most pressing problems.

Question 52

Congressional staff members' responsibilities include

A) negotiating with lobbyists.
B) drafting legislative proposals.
C) handling constituent requests.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 53

What formal structure of Congress exemplifies the need to divide the labor of legislation?

A) the establishment of party whips
B) the establishment of standing committees
C) the strict control over floor time in Congress
D) the establishment of minority and majority leaders

Question 54

The so-called nuclear option refers to a

A) proposal to extend the use of the filibuster to the House of Representatives.
B) constitutional amendment to eliminate senatorial approval of nominees for positions in the executive branch and the federal courts.
C) policy of restructuring of Congress in a way that would eliminate the committee system.
D) change to the filibuster rules enacted in 2013 that prevents the filibustering of nominees for positions in the executive branch and the federal courts.

Question 55

The House Rules committee is important because it

A) is placed in charge of selecting the Speaker of the House.
B) decides the order in which bills come up for a vote on the House floor and determines the specific rules that govern the length of debate and opportunity for amendments.
C) reviews all applications regarding the formation of select committees.
D) determines the jurisdiction of every congressional standing committee.

Question 56

Congressional leaders form ________ committees when they want to take up an issue that falls between the jurisdiction of existing committees, to highlight an issue, or to investigate a particular problem.

A) conference
B) joint
C) select
D) standing

Question 57

The Senate Watergate committee of 1973 is an example of a ________ committee.

A) conference
B) joint
C) select
D) standing

Question 58

A ________ veto occurs when Congress adjourns during a 10-day period after presenting the president with a bill and he or she takes no action.

A) procrastination
B) pocket
C) silent
D) line-item

Question 59

Who is responsible for communicating the leaders' wishes to members in Congress?

A) the Speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore
B) the party whips
C) the party caucuses
D) the Ways and Means Committee

Question 60

What is cloture?

A) the ability of a senator to speak for as long as he or she wishes to prevent action from being taken on legislation that he or she opposes
B) the process by which three-fifths of the Senate can end a filibuster
C) the rule that allows one house of Congress to circumvent the other during the legislative process
D) a lawsuit filed by a member of the Senate against a member of the House or vice versa

Question 61

Most members of the House attempt to stay on good terms with the Speaker of the House because the Speaker

A) has the authority to call all party unity votes.
B) possesses the power of recognition.
C) approves all requests for logrolling.
D) makes all decisions regarding how leadership PACs will distribute their funds.

Question 62

In addition to pressuring members of Congress to vote a certain way on a bill, interest groups also have substantial influence in

A) setting the legislative agenda.
B) getting senators to filibuster debates on bills they oppose.
C) determining whether a member of Congress will run for reelection.
D) deciding committee assignments for members of Congress.

Question 63

What is the organizational structure of Congress? What are some of the leadership positions in both houses, and what are their functions? What are some of the types of committees? Are there any important differences between the organizational structures of the House and Senate? If so, discuss them.

Question 64

The role that the U.S. Senate plays in impeachments can best be compared with that of a

A) trial jury.
B) grand jury.
C) prosecuting attorney.
D) defense attorney.

Question 65

Describe how Congress exercises its checks and balances over the executive branch. Which chamber of Congress has more authority over the executive branch? Provide examples. How might partisanship help to diminish the exercise of congressional power over the presidency? Explain.

Question 66

Why does the House typically have greater party unity than the Senate?

A) Representatives have more partisan constituents than senators.
B) House leaders have more organizational control over the actions of representatives than Senate leaders.
C) There is, in fact, no real difference in levels of party unity between the House and the Senate.
D) Interest groups are less influential in the House than in the Senate.

Question 67

Compared to the rest of American history, recent congresses have been ________ polarized and ________ productive in terms of passing laws.

A) less; equally
B) less; less
C) more; less
D) more; more

Question 68

Who were the only two presidents to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives?

A) Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon
B) Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover
C) Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton
D) Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford

Question 69

Describe the process by which a bill becomes a law. What are the major steps in the process? What are the main differences in the legislative process between the two houses of Congress?

Question 70

Oversight can best be described as the

A) efforts of Congress to supervise the manner in which its laws are implemented by the executive branch.
B) organizational control exercised by party whips over members of Congress.
C) authority of committee chairs over the hearings and investigations conducted by the subcommittees.
D) approval that the Senate must give to all presidential appointments to the federal judiciary.

Question 71

The role that the U.S. House of Representatives plays in impeachments can best be compared with that of a

A) judge.
B) grand jury.
C) prosecuting attorney.
D) defense attorney.

Question 72

There are many different ways that members of Congress can represent the American people. Define and discuss the differences between sociological and agency representation. Which type of representation do you think the U.S. Congress provides best? Why?

Question 73

Many political observers have identified a strong "incumbency advantage" in congressional elections. Describe what this term means and explain the reasons behind it. In particular, discuss some of the ways members of Congress can provide patronage to their districts and the role that redistricting plays in congressional elections.

Question 74

The Senate's constitutional power of advice and consent extends to which of the following?

A) the president's power to make treaties with foreign nations
B) the president's power to engage in executive oversight
C) the president's power to issue executive orders
D) the president's power to issue pardons

Question 75

Which of the following statements about the impeachment process is most accurate?

A) It is a nonpartisan exercise.
B) It is one where all legislators have a common understanding of the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors."
C) It is a partisan exercise.
D) It is carried out entirely by the Senate, and the House has no role to play.