28 January 2009
Glossary of Legislative Terms
Advice and Consent – In this constitutionally mandated process, international treaties and presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts must be confirmed by the Senate and take effect only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
Amendment – A change or a proposed change to the text of a bill or law.
Appropriation — The provision of funds through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes.
Authorization — A law that establishes or continues one or more federal agencies or programs, sets the terms and conditions under which they operate, authorizes the enactment of appropriations and specifies how appropriated funds can be used.
Bill — A proposed law. It can address either matters of general interest (public bill) or narrow interest (private bill), such as individual immigration cases or private claims against the federal government.
Budget resolution — A concurrent resolution that sets forth the congressional budget. It establishes various budget totals, divides spending totals into functional categories and may include reconciliation instructions to designated House or Senate committees.
Caucus — An informal organization of senators or representatives created to discuss issues of mutual concern. Caucuses can be organized based on regional, political or ideological, ethnic or economic issues.
Cloture — A procedure by which the Senate can vote to limit debate, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule, the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours if three-fifths of the full Senate (normally 60 votes) concurs.
Committees — Subsidiary organizations of the House and the Senate established for the purpose of considering legislation, conducting hearings and investigations or carrying out other assignments as instructed by the House or Senate.
Conference committee — A committee composed of senators and representatives named to work out differences between same-subject bills passed by both chambers. Any compromise reached must be approved by the Senate and House.
Continuing resolution — A joint resolution enacted by Congress to provide budget authority for federal agencies and programs to continue in operation until the regular appropriations acts are enacted.
Earmark — An inclusion to a law by a member of Congress to specify funds for a particular purpose, bypassing executive branch merit-based or competitive allocation processes or otherwise limiting the ability of the executive branch to manage aspects of funds allocation.
Expenditures — The actual spending of money (rather than the permission to spend given in appropriation bills). The executive branch makes expenditures; Congress votes appropriations. The two are rarely identical in any fiscal year because expenditures often represent money appropriated in previous years.
Filibuster — An informal term used in the Senate to describe an attempt to block or delay action on a bill or other matter by lengthy debate, numerous procedural motions or other obstructive actions. It can be stopped only by a three-fifths cloture vote of the senators present and voting.
Hold — An informal practice used in the Senate by which a senator informs his or her floor leader that he or she does not wish a particular bill or other measure to reach the floor for consideration. The majority leader need not follow the senator's wishes, but understands that the opposing senator could filibuster any motion to consider the measure.
Joint committee — Committees that include members from both chambers of Congress. Joint committees usually are established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation. Chairmanship usually alternates between the House and Senate members from Congress to Congress.
Majority leader — The leader of the majority party in either the House or the Senate. In the House, the majority leader is second in command to the speaker. In the Senate, the majority leader and minority leader serve as the chief speakers for their parties and manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate.
Mark up — The process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend and rewrite proposed legislation in a section-by-section review.
Minority leader — The leader of the minority party in either the House or the Senate. In the Senate, the majority leader and minority leader serve as the chief speakers for their parties and manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate.
Oversight — Committee review of the activities of a federal agency or program.
President pro tempore (or pro tem) — A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the vice president. The president pro tempore ("for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the senator of the majority party who has the longest record of continuous service.
Ranking member — Member of the majority party on a committee who ranks first in seniority after the chairman/chairwoman.
Ranking minority member — Member of a committee who has the highest rank on the minority party's side.
Report — A committee's written record of its actions and views on a bill. Committee reports discuss and explain the purpose of measures and contain other related information. The term also may refer to the action taken by a committee to submit its recommendations to the House or the Senate.
Resolution — A formal statement of a decision or opinion by the House or Senate or both. A simple resolution is made by one chamber and generally deals with that chamber's rules or prerogatives. A concurrent resolution is presented in both chambers and usually expresses a congressional view on a matter not within congressional jurisdiction. A joint resolution requires approval in both chambers and goes to the president for approval. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the president.
Roll-Call vote — Senators vote as their names are called by the clerk. Representatives electronically record their votes. Each House member has a card to insert at voting stations and a running count of votes is displayed. Roll-call votes and recorded teller votes are the only votes for which a public record is made of how individual members of Congress voted.
Speaker of the House of Representatives — This representative presides over the House of Representatives. Each party separately elects a candidate for speaker and then nominates its candidate before the entire House. Typically, the majority party’s candidate wins in a House vote. The person who holds this post is next in line of succession to the presidency after the vice president.
Table — A motion to table seeks to put aside a bill and remove it from consideration. Adopting a motion to table eliminates any possibility a bill will be enacted.
Veto — A president’s refusal to approve a bill or joint resolution, preventing its enactment into law. A veto can be overturned only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
Whip — Assistants to the floor leaders who are elected by their party conferences. The majority and minority whips (and their assistants) are responsible for mobilizing votes within their parties on major issues. In the absence of a party floor leader, the whip often serves as acting floor leader.
