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APAG Ch' 12 Congress

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Give an example of partisanship. ... Judiciary committees vote along party lines. Impeachment of Clinton. 2. What is reapportionment? ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: APAG Ch' 12 Congress


1
APAG Ch. 12 Congress
  • Assignment 2 Pages 368-376

2
  • 1. What does bipartisan mean? Give an example of
    partisanship.

3
  • Bipartisanship is something that has the support
    of both Democrats and Republicans.
  • Judiciary committees vote along party lines.
  • Impeachment of Clinton

4
  • 2. What is reapportionment? Redistricting?
    Justiciable Questions?

5
  • Reapportionment is the allocation of seats in the
    House of Rep. to each state after each census.
  • Redistricting is the redrawing of the boundaries
    of the congressional districts within each state.
  • Justiciable Question is one that may be raised
    and reviewed in court.

6
  • What was significant about these three cases
  • a) Baker v. Carr
  • b) Reynolds v. Sims
  • c) Wesberry v Sanders

7
  • In Baker, the Court made reapportionment a
    justiciable question.
  • In Reynolds, the Court held that both chambers of
    a state legislature must be apportioned with
    equal populations in each district- one person,
    one vote
  • In Wesberry, the Court held that this one
    person, one vote applied to congressional
    districts too.

8
  • 4. What is gerrymandering? What did the Court
    say about it in Davis v. Bandemer?

9
  • Gerrymandering is the drawing of legislative
    district boundary lines for the purpose of
    obtaining partisan or factional advantage. A
    district is said to have been gerrymandered when
    its shape is altered substantially by the
    dominant party in a state legislature to maximize
    its electoral strength at the expense of the
    minority party.

10
  • The Court ruled in the Davis case that
    redistricting for the political benefit of one
    group could be challenged on constitutional
    grounds. However, in this particular case, the
    Court did not agree that the districts were drawn
    unfairly.

11
  • 5. What is packing and cracking? How many
    seats in the House of Rep. were open for real
    competition in the 2002 Congressional elections?

12
  • Packing and cracking is the use of powerful
    computers and software that packs voters
    supporting the opposing party into as few
    districts as possible or crack the opposing
    partys supporters into different districts.
  • Only 30-50 seats out of 435 were really open in
    the 2002 Congressional election.

13
  • 6.What are minority-majority districts? What
    has the Court ruled about them?

14
  • They are gerrymandering districts to make sure
    that a minority population becomes the majority
    in order to win a seat.
  • The Supreme Court has ruled consistently that
    race-based districting is unconstitutional.

15
  • 7. What are some of the pay, perks, and
    privileges that members of Congress receive?

16
  • In 2002, annual congressional salaries were
    150,000.
  • They have access to a private gym, free parking
    at Dulles airport and on Capitol Hill, subsidized
    dining, free medical care, inexpensive but
    generous pensions, liberal travel allowances, and
    special tax considerations.

17
  • Franking privilege-free mail
  • A large personal staff
  • Average of 30 per senator
  • Average of 15 per house member
  • Protected from arrest except for treason, felony,
    and breach of the peace while in office.
  • Protected from libel or slander suits while in
    office.

18
  • 8. Where is most of the work done for
    legislating? Who controls most bills?

19
  • In committees or subcommittees.
  • Committees control most bills.
  • Most bills die in the committees.

20
  • 9. What is required to get a bill out of a
    committee that doesnt want to release the bill?

21
  • Discharge petitionwhich must be signed by a
    majority of the House members (218) to release
    the bill.

22
  • What is the importance of each of these
    committees
  • a) Standing Committees
  • b) Select Committees
  • c) Joint Committees
  • d) Conference Committees
  • e) House Rules Committee

23
  • Standing Committees are the most important of all
    committees in Congress. They are permanent
    bodies that are established by rules of each
    chamber and consider bills within a certain
    subject area. The most important of these are
    the Appropriations Committee, the Ways and Means
    Committee in the House, the House Education and
    Workforce Committee.

24
  • Select Committees are temporary and established
    for a limited time period and for a special
    purpose.
  • Joint Committees are formed from both houses and
    deal with the economy, taxation, and the Library
    of Congress.

25
  • d) Conference committees are jointly formed to
    reconcile differences when bills pass the two
    chambers of Congress in different forms.
  • e) The House Rules Committee is uniquely
    powerful in that it sets the time limit on debate
    and determines whether and how a bill may be
    amended. It can initiate legislation on its own.

26
  • What is the seniority system?

27
  • The seniority system is a custom followed in both
    chambers of congress specifying that members with
    longer terms of continuous service will be given
    preference when committee chair-persons and
    holders of other significant posts are selected.

28
  • 12. What is a safe seat?

29
  • A safe seat is a district that returns the
    legislator with 55 of the vote or more.
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