| Term | Definition |
|---|
| constituents | The residents of a congressional district or state. |
| reapportionment | The assigning by Congress of congressiona; seats after each census. State legislatures reapportion state legislature districts. |
| redistricting | The redrawing of congressional and other legislature districts lines following the census, to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population. |
| gerrymandering | The drawing of legislature district boundaries to benefit a party, group, or incumbent. |
| safe seat | An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other, so the success of that party's candidate is almost taken for granted. |
| incumbent | The current holder of elected office. |
| earmarks | Special spending projects that are set aside on behalf of individual members of Congress for their constituents. |
| bicameralism | The principle of a two-house legislature. |
| enumerated power | The powers explicitly given to Congress in the Constitution. |
| Speaker | The presiding officer in the House of Representatives, formally elected by the House but actually selected by the majority party. |
| party caucus | A meeting of the members of a party in a legislature chamber to select party leaders and to develop party policy. Called a conference by Republicans. |
| majority leader | The legislative leader selected by the majority party leaders, and tries to keep members of the party in line. |
| whip | The party leader who is the liaison between the leadership and the rank-and-file in the legislature. |
| closed rule | A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that prohibits any amendments to bills or provides that only members of the committee reporting the bill may offer amendments. |
| open rule | A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that permits floor amendments within the overall time alocated to the bill. |
| president pro tempore | An officer of the Senate selected by the majority party to act as chair in the absence of the vice president. |
| filibuster | A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator refuses to relinquish the floor and thereby delays procedings and prevents a vote on a controversial issue. |
| cloture | A procedure for terminating debate, especially in a filibusters, in the Senate. |
| standing committee | A permanent committee created for a specific purpose, sometimes to conduct an investigation. |
| special select committee | A congressional committee created for a specific purpose, sometimes to conduct an investigation. |
| joint committee | A committee composed of members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate; such committees oversee the Library of Congress and conduct investigations. |
| senority rule | A legislature practice that assigns the chair of a committee or subcommittee to the member of the majority party with the longest continous service on the committee. |
| conference committee | A committee appointed by the presiding officers of each chamber to adjust differences on a particular bill passed by each in different form. |
| delegate | An official who is expected to represent the views of his or her constituents even when personally holding different views; one interpretation of the role of the legislature. |
| trustee | An official who isexpected to vote independently bsed on his or her judgement of the circumstances; one interpretation of the role of the legislature. |
| logrolling | Mutual aid and vote trading among legislatures. |
| attentive public | Citizens who follow public affairs closely. |
| discharge petition | A petition that, if signed by a majority of teh memebers of the House of Representatives, will pry a bill from committee and bring it to the floor for consideration. |
| rider | A provision attached to a bill―to which it may or may not be related―in order to secure its passage or defeat. |
| pocket veto | A veto exercised by the president after Congress has adjourned; if the president takes no action for ten days, the bill does not become law and is not returned to Congress for apossible overide. |
| override | An action taken by Congress to reverse a presidential veto, requiring a two-third majority in each chamber. |
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