United States Congressional Conference Committee Quiz!

When the President refuses to sign a bill, he is using his veto power. A veto is a constitutional power that allows the President to reject a bill passed by Congress. By vetoing a bill, the President effectively prevents it from becoming a law, unless Congress can override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This power serves as a check and balance on the legislative branch, allowing the President to express disagreement or concerns with proposed legislation.

A filibuster refers to the tactic used by senators to delay or prevent Senate action through long speeches. By speaking for an extended period of time, senators can effectively stall the legislative process and obstruct the passage of a bill or nomination. This strategy is often employed to gain leverage or draw attention to a particular issue or to prevent the majority party from advancing their agenda. Filibusters can only be ended through a process called cloture, which requires a supermajority vote to limit further debate and proceed to a final vote.

Cloture is a parliamentary procedure used to end debate on a bill or a motion and bring it to a vote. It is the process of limiting the amount of time that can be spent discussing a particular issue. Once cloture is invoked, a specific time limit is set for further debate, ensuring that the discussion does not continue indefinitely. This allows for a more efficient decision-making process in legislative bodies.

The correct answer is "twice" because it states that no senator is allowed to speak more than twice on any given question in a day. This implies that there is a limit on the number of times a senator can speak, and that limit is specifically set at two times.

During a filibuster, a Senator is allowed to sit, walk around, and use unparliamentary language. However, standing is not forbidden to a Senator speaking during a filibuster. This means that a Senator can choose to stand while delivering their speech or engaging in the filibuster.

A pocket veto is possible within ten days of the end of a session of Congress. This occurs when the President does not sign a bill and Congress adjourns within the ten-day period. Since Congress is no longer in session, the bill cannot be reconsidered or overridden, effectively resulting in a veto.

The Cloture Rule is used infrequently because senators do not want to undermine the significance of the filibuster. The filibuster allows senators to prolong debate and prevent a vote on a bill, giving them leverage and the ability to negotiate. By using the Cloture Rule too often, senators risk devaluing the filibuster as a tool, which they may need to use in the future to advance their own agenda or block legislation they oppose. Therefore, they prefer to reserve the use of the Cloture Rule for critical situations.

In the Senate, senators have the freedom to speak on the floor for as long as they wish, which is not the case in the House. This allows senators to have extended discussions and debates on the bill, giving them more time to express their opinions and arguments. This difference in the rules and procedures between the Senate and the House highlights the unique characteristics and dynamics of each chamber in the legislative process.

Conference committees are usually made up of the leading members of the standing committee that brought the measure to each house. This is because conference committees are formed when the House of Representatives and the Senate pass different versions of the same bill. The purpose of the conference committee is to reconcile the differences between the two versions and come up with a compromise bill that can be approved by both houses. Therefore, it makes sense for the leading members of the standing committee that originally worked on the bill to be part of the conference committee, as they have the most knowledge and expertise on the subject matter.

President Wilson was furious over a filibuster during discussion of legislation to permit the arming of merchant vessels. This suggests that President Wilson strongly believed in the need for arming merchant vessels, possibly in response to the increasing threat of German submarines during World War I. The filibuster, which is a tactic used to delay or block legislation, would have hindered the progress of this important legislation, leading to President Wilson's anger.