American Government CLEP Exam | Questions & Answers (100 %Score) Latest Updated
2024/2025 Comprehensive Questions A+ Graded Answers | With Expert Solutions
The president's constitutional power of ____ allows him/her to reject acts of Congress. -
Veto. To balance the ability of the legislature to pass laws unilaterally, the president is
given this right as part of the system of checks and balances.
Congress can ________ a veto with a 2/3 vote of each house. - Override. Part of the
system of checks and balances, this power ensures that, given enough votes, even the
President cannot unilaterally reject acts of congress.
A filibuster can occur only in the ______. - Senate. Because of its more flexible rules, a
filibuster is possible only in the Senate. A filibuster is a tactic used to delay legislation.
The presiding officer of the House of Representatives is the _______. - Speaker. The
Speaker is the House presiding officer. Because he is elected by the full House, he is
normally a member of the majority party.
The House Rules Committee decides the _____ in which House bills come up for vote. -
Order. The House Rules Committee sets rules that may help or hinder a piece of
legislation, including rules on when a vote should occur, the length of debate on a bill,
and whether there can be amendments to the bill.
Caucuses are informed groups of Senators or Representatives who _____ opinions,
interests, or backgrounds. - Share. Caucuses are also known as Legislative Service
Organizations. Caucuses are groups of Senators of Representatives who try to advance
particular agendas through their association.
The president can veto a bill by employing a technique known as a pocket veto, where
the president takes __ action with regard to the bill when the Congress has adjourned
during the 10-day period after a bill has been sent to the President to be signed. - No. A
pocket veto enables the president to refuse to sign a bill into law without the political
ramifications of an explicit veto. The pocket veto cannot be overridden by Congress
since the bill effectively "expires" due to lack of Presidential action and Congressional
presence.
The House of Representatives consists of how many members total? ___ - 435. The
House consists of 435 representatives. At one time, the number was based on
population, but the number was fixed at 435 by the Reapportionment Act of 1929. Note
that the number of representatives each state has is still determined by population, but
the total number has been fixed at 435. As population shifts, those 435 seats are
redistributed among the states. No matter how small the state, it gets a minimum of 1
seat; for example, Alaska and Delaware have 1 Representative each, as opposed to
California, which had 52 as of the year 2000.
,The costs associated with social _______ programs such as Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (welfare), Social Security, and Medicare are known as
entitlements. - Welfare. The costs associated with such welfare programs are known as
entitlements. They make up more than fifty percent of the national budget.
If a president is impeached by the House, the charges against him are called the
________ of impeachment. - Articles. In an impeachment, the Senate acts as a court
and tries the president for the offenses he is accused of.
Every ten years, after a national ______, each state makes adjustments to the
congressional districts to reflect the changes in population. This process is known as
reapportionment. - Census. This process is known as reapportionment. State
legislatures draw the new congressional district lines.
Two views of a president's role in policymaking are _______________ and
congressionalist. One view implies that the president takes an active role in
policymaking, while the other implies that the legislature should dominate policymaking.
- Presidentialist. Democrats since FDR have traditionally taken the presidentialist view,
while Republicans have take the congressionalist view.
A filibuster is a ________ tactic used in the Senate where a senator will spend hours
giving a speech on a bill with the purpose of delaying or killing it. - Delaying. This is
known as a filibuster. A filibuster can be broken up by a cloture, which requires the vote
of sixty senators.
The fact that American public policy is largely determined by __________ between
competing groups reflects the pluralist theory of American politics. - Compromise.
Various political groups and parties strive to pass their own agendas into law. In that
process, these groups must often reach compromises in order to pass legislation that,
at least partially, achieves their goals.
The ________ of the legislative branch of the US government is an example of
bicameralism. - Division. Borne out of the argument between more-and less-populous
states over legislative influence, this resulted in the bicameralism, or division into two
houses, of the legislature.
Presidents sometimes try to avoid the Congressional "advise and consent" requirement
with regard to treaties and trade agreements by entering into an executive agreement
with _______ governments. - Foreign. An executive agreement allows the president to
make secret agreements without Senate approval.
While many presidents have generated notoriety by brokering treaties with foreign
countries, the power to ratify foreign treaties lies with the ______. - Senate. Article II
section 2 of the Constitution gives this power solely to the Senate.
,Unfunded mandates are ____ passed by the federal government for the states to follow-
-i.e. environmental standards, but does not provide additional funding at the same time.
- Laws. These are known as unfunded mandates, and have caused a lot of controversy,
because many of these mandates cost additional money for the states to follow, but the
federal government does not provide this additional money.
In the US v. Nixon, 1974, the Supreme Court ruled against president Nixon, stating that
executive privilege did not allow him to refuse to comply with a _____ order to produce
material for a criminal trial. - Court. Nixon sought to not turn over taped conversations
that revealed White House knowledge of the Watergate break-in by invoking executive
privilege.
The __________ Act passed in 1973, limits a president's authority to send troops to
hostile areas without Congressional approval. - War Powers. Driven by the US's
involvement in two bloody "police actions" in Korea and Vietnam, the War Powers Act
was largely designed to curtail such actions in the future.
The stewardship theory of presidential power holds that the president has the power
and duty to do whatever is necessary in the national interest, unless prohibited by the
____________. - Constitution. The stewardship theory is used by those who wish to
expand presidential power. FDR is a prime example of a president who subscribed to
this view of the presidency.
The _______ theory of presidential power states that the president's power is limited to
those powers specifically enumerated by the Constitution. - Taftian. Most presidents
prior to FDR subscribed to this theory.
The ________________ of the President, established by FDR in 1939, helps the
president oversee the federal bureaucracy. - Executive Office. The EOP is made up of
several advisers and offices that help the president oversee areas of the government.
The Executive Office of the President consists of four agencies--the Office of
Management and Budget prepares the federal budget and evaluates how federal funds
are being spent by various federal agencies.
Jefferson invoked the concept of ________ powers to justify the Louisiana Purchase of
1803. - Inherent. Inherent powers are powers that can be inferred from specific powers
granted by the Constitution.
For over a century, presidents have sought the power of the line item veto, a significant
change in the power of the _______ veto. - General. Many states grant their governors
the line item veto to veto specific portions of a bill without vetoing the entire bill. While
president Clinton exercised the line-item veto on a number of occasions, that power was
found to be unconstitutional in 1998 and overturned.
______________ is one of the most important and powerful Congressional committees
because of its budget oversight powers. - Ways and Means. The Ways and Means
, committee is one of the most powerful of the Congressional committees. Not only does
it have the power to allocate funding to projects, but its power extends to taxes; tax bills
originate in this committee in the House of Representatives.
In the case of a tie vote in the ______, the Vice President is afforded the tie-breaking
vote. - Senate. Article 1 section 3 of the Constitution gives this power to the Vice
President.
The ______ has the power to try all impeachments including that of the president. In
such trials, however, it is the Chief Justice that shall preside over the trial. - Senate.
Article 1 section 3 states that when the president is tried by the Senate, the Chief
Justice will preside.
All bills passed in relation to revenue must originate in the House of _______________.
- Representatives. While it must be passed by both houses and signed by the president,
all revenue-raising bills must originate in the House. Note that the tax related bills
originate specifically in the Ways and Means committee of the House of
Representatives.
While the president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, it is the domain of
the Congress to declare ___. - War. Article 1 section 8 grants the right to declare war to
the Congress.
A law passed by Congress to outlaw an act and _____________ punish citizens for that
act, even though it was legal at the time they engaged in it is referred to as ex post facto
law. - Retroactively. Article 1 section 9 forbids Congress from passing a law that would
punish citizens for acts that were legal at the time they were involved in them.
The _________ has the power to appoint Supreme Court justices. - President. Article 2
section 2 of the Constitution gives the president this power. Justices must be confirmed
by the Senate.
Each of a President's cabinet members has both a loyalty to the President and to
his/her own __________. - Department. Cabinet members often experience divided
loyalty between the President whom they serve under and the Cabinet Department they
head. This division in loyalty can sometimes lead to Cabinet Members not performing
their role as Presidential adviser as objectively as possible, which can undermine their
effectiveness.
In the Senate, the majority leader has the power to appoint members and chairs of
__________. - Committees. The majority party structure of the Senate gives the
majority leader this power. This ability enables the majority leader to control important
committee assignments. Note that the leader does not typically pick just anyone for
committee assignments; they are often determined by the tradition of seniority, or the
amount of time that the senator has served.
