Legislative Branch Vocabulary

Assign to a particular use; Congress does this to fund various public needs.

• Allocate

• Designate

• Appropriate

• Distribute

Drawing district boundaries for political advantages.

• Gerrymandering

• Redistricting

• Filibustering

• Lobbying

The people and interests represented by the members of Congress or any elected official.

• Constituency

• Electorate

• Lobbyists

• Political Action Committee

To redistribute seats in the House of Representatives every ten years with the census.

• Reapportion

• Redistrict

• Reallocate

• Reassign

Distribute the seats in the House of Representatives among states based on population.

• Apportion

• Allocate

• Distribute

• Assign

A proposed law in the House or Senate.

• Bill

• Act

• Resolution

• Ordinance

Assistants to the floor leaders in the House and Senate, responsible for monitoring votes of party members and encouraging them to vote with party leadership.

• Whips

• Leaders

• Clerks

• Chairs

The floor leader of the party that holds the minority of seats in each house of Congress.

• Majority Leader

• Minority Leaders

• Speaker of the House

• Whip

The floor leader of the party that holds the majority of seats in each house of Congress.

• Minority Leaders

• Whip

• Majority Leaders

• Speaker of the House

Members of the House and Senate picked by their parties to carry out party decisions and steer legislative action to meet party goals.

• Whip

• Floor Leaders

• Committee Chairs

• Majority Leader