Congress Quiz

Congress Quiz: Answer Key

In recent years, the rate of re-election for representatives seeking to return to service in the U.S. House of Representatives is about
a. 35 percent.
b. 55 percent.
c. 75 percent.
d. 95 percent.


ANS: D; REF: Page 177

This is a key feature of Congress and a major difference between the House and the Senate. House members can in effect “choose” their voters, rather than the other way around. More importantly, House elections are about local issues and what the member has done for the district. Because turnout is so low in House elections and voters chose on the basis of purely local issues, a member can usually put together a stable, winning coalition just on the basis of a district specific spending projects and helping people solve minor problems with the Federal Bureaucracy, like your Grandmother’s social security check. That is why House members devote 2/3 of their staff to constituency service.


A bill's opponents generally prefer that the Rules Committee decide to use
a. an open rule.
b. a closed rule.
c. a termination rule.
d. a commencement rule.


ANS: A; REF: Page 197

This follows from the discussion of the Arrow Impossibility Theorem we worked through in class Friday. An “open rule” would mean that someone could always propose a new alternative, a new bill to vote on (by introducing a new bill or, more commonly, amending the current one) and create a new winning coalition. Almost all the important, i.e., money bills in the House are introduced under a closed rule.


A rule allowing a three-fifths majority of U.S. Senators to set a time limit on debate over a given bill is called
a. Cloture
b. preemption.
c. a closed rule.
d. legislative veto.


ANS: A; REF: Page 198

i.e., providing “closure” to the debate. The word cloture is just the fancier sounding Latin version of the word.


A congressional representative’s statement to his or her legislative colleague that “I’ll support your bill if you’ll support mine” is an example of
a. whipping.
b. logrolling.
c. distributive tendency.
d. interest group bargaining.


ANS: B; REF: Page 210

Note how this often grows out of members having radically different concerns, the member from one district cares about farm products, the member from another wants a parking garage downtown. A coalition is a group of people that want to do the same thing for different reasons.

Reforms that may make Congress better able to act, such as strong central leadership, reduction of the number of committees and subcommittees, and retention of members with seniority and experience, should also make Congress much more representative.

ANS: F; REF: Page 168

Again, follows from the logic of the impossibility theorem and Principle 4. The group that can make a decision ends up having a dictator.



Among the most fervent supporters of creating districts in which members of racial minorities have decisive majorities were white Republicans.

ANS: T; REF: Page 182

Almost no one got this. The court decided that having more minority representatives was the goal of policy. This is best accomplished by having “majority-minority” districts, i.e., districts where a majority of the voters are minority members. Drawing districts this way insures that there are a good number of African American House members (around 10%, as opposed to only one African American in the Senate), most of whom win their districts by huge margins, but it also insures that there are more Republicans overall in the House than there would otherwise be.


36. Under Senate rules, members have a virtually unlimited ability to propose amendments to a pending bill.

ANS: T; REF: Page 198

This is why running the Senate is like “Herding Cats,” in Senator Lott’s memorable phrase.