| Bill | A proposed law (legislative act) within Congress or another legislature.
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| Cloture | A parliamentary maneuver which, if a three-fifths majority votes for it, limits Senate debate to 100 hours and has the effect of defeating a filibuster.
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| Conference committee | A temporary committee that is formed to bargain over the differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill. The committee's members are usually appointed from the House and Senate standing committees that originally worked on the bill.
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| Constituency | The individuals who live within the geographical area represented by an elected official. More narrowly, the body of citizens eligible to vote for a particular representative.
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| Filibuster | A procedural tactic in the U.S. Senate whereby a minority of legislators prevent a bill from coming to a vote by holding the floor and talking until the majority gives in and the bill is withdrawn from consideration.
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| Gerrymandering | Process by which one party draws district boundaries to its advantage.
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| Jurisdiction (of a congressional committee) | The policy area in which a particular congressional committee is authorized to act.
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| Law (as enacted by Congress) | A legislative proposal, or bill, that is passed by both the House and Senate and is either signed or not vetoed by the president.
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| Lawmaking function | The authority (of a legislature) to make the laws necessary to carry out the government's powers.
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| Oversight function | A supervisory activity of Congress that centers on its constitutional responsibility to see that the executive carries out the laws faithfully and spends appropriations properly.
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| Party caucus | Party organization within Congress consisting of a separate and distinct group for members of each political party from which party leaders are selected and party interests defined.
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| Party discipline | The ability of a party's House or Senate members to act together as a cohesive group to support major party objectives.
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| Party leaders | Members of the House and Senate who are chosen by the Democratic or Republican caucus in each chamber to represent the party's interests in that chamber and who give some central direction to the chamber's deliberations.
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| Pork barrel projects | Laws whose tangible benefits are targeted at a particular legislator's constituency.
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| Reapportionment | The process, after a new population census, of redistributing House seats so that the number of seats in each state more closely reflects the size of each state's population.
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| Redistricting | The process of altering election districts in order to make them as nearly equal in population as possible. Redistricting takes place every ten years, after each population census.
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| Representation function | The responsibility of a legislature to represent various interests in society.
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| Rider | An amendment to a bill being considered by Congress.
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| Seniority | A member of Congress's consecutive years of service on a particular committee.
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| Service strategy | Use of personal staff by members of Congress to perform services for constituents in order to gain their support in future elections.
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| Standing committee | A permanent congressional committee with responsibility for a particular area of public policy. An example is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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| Sunset law | An oversight device which fixes a date on which a program will end unless it is renewed by Congress.
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| Veto | Presidential refusal to sign a bill whereby the bill is sent back to its originating chamber with the president's reasons for not signing it.
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