7 Congressional Committees

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are divided up into ______________ in order to make them more efficient.

• committees

• political parties

• special interest groups

There are _______________ made up of members of both houses.

• joint committees

• bicameral committees

• special interest groups

Other committees are___________________, which are created to reconcile a bill when the House and Senate write different versions of it.

• conference committees

• joint committees

• resolution committees

Any member of Congress can propose a bill, this is called _____________, but it has to go to a committee first.

• proposal power

• executive privilege

• legislative discretion

The power to control what do or do not become bills is what political scientists call "_______________"

• Gatekeeper Authority

• Executive Privilege

• Legislative Resolution

The committee chairs also manage the actual process of writing a bill, which is called ______________, and the vote on the bill in the committee itself.

• mark up

• gerrymandering

• credit claiming

Committees exercise ______________ by assigning staff to scrutinize a particular law or policy and by holding hearings.

• Congressional oversight

• executive privilege

• judicial review

Being able to offer chairmanships to loyal party members gives the __________ a lot more influence over the committees themselves.

• Speaker of the House

• President of the Senate

• Secretary of State

As congresspeople spend more and more time raising money, more and more of the actual legislative work is done by the ____________.

• Congressional staff

• Executive Branch

• Supreme Court

The Congressional Budget Office assesses the likely cost and impact of legislation. When the CBO looks at the cost of a particular bill it's called "____________________"

• Scoring the Bill

• Gerrymadnering

• Credit Claiming