While government expenditures have indeed increased in recent times, it is also true that, due to widespread public concerns occasioned by this development, the national budget has grown ever narrower in terms of its generosity. More and more government departments are faced with funding cutbacks and are urged to spend what money they do receive more responsibly and transparently, with dire consequences for failure. Congressional leadership in both chambers strives to ensure that government monies are spent in the wisest way possible, often moving to de-fund some pork barrels and other programs deemed of dubious necessity. As zealous to guard their chances of reelection as ever, greater numbers of Senators and representatives have thus become engaged in oversight activities in hopes of both preserving pork funds for their constituents and so they can point to their role in curbing government spending come reelection time.

Any member of the House can introduce a bill. Note that though this seems like anyone can introduce a bill, that is simply not the case. Only members of the House can introduce bills—the President, for example, cannot introduce a bill. That said, the President can easily write a bill (or have staffers do so) and give it to a member of the House to introduce (or “sponsor”).

House members may introduce bills for various reasons—oftentimes it’s political grandstanding (e.g. introducing a bill that has no possibility of getting out of committee, much less being passed, in order to make a statement to one’s constituency). Whatever the reason, any member of the House may introduce a bill in the House. 

Out of the answer choices presented, two of them are most likely to hold hearings: committees and subcommittees. Because a committee (or subcommittee—for simplicity’s sake, assume that, for this question, there is no difference between the two) is much smaller than the full chamber, it makes more sense for a committee to hold hearings. Moreover, committees are specialized, whereas the chamber is generalized. In slightly more concrete terms, a House Member (or Senator) from Iowa may know a great deal about growing corn, but nothing about National Defense, whereas a House Member from Kentucky may know a lot about firearms and nothing about FCC regulations. Committees allow members of Congress to specialize in a particular niche, hence their importance in legislation.

This should have been a relatively easy question. A hearing is a meeting of any time of Congressional committee (or subcommittee) which is usually public (or public record), and is used to evaluate proposed legislation, conduct investigations (provided Congress has the jurisdiction), or to oversee the government’s implementation of law. The only possible pitfall in this question was the two almost-correct answers beginning with “a meeting of a Senate committee . . .” and “a meeting of a House committee . . .” These are incorrect because they are incomplete—either chamber of Congress is free to conduct a hearing.

Bill proponents are not without metaphorical arrows in their quiver, in the event that a bill gets pigeonholed (stuck/buried in committee). That said, it is VERY difficult for bill proponents to forcefully move a bill out of committee and onto the floor for full consideration in the event that it is stuck in committee. In order to do so, any member of the House may file a “discharge petition,” at which point the petition has  days to gather  signatures (currently, a majority of the House). If the petition succeeds in gathering signatures, the bill is automatically removed from the committee and placed before the full House.

This is an interesting question. The sad truth of the matter is that committees are a choke-point for bills—the first of many. Bills face a very tough uphill battle in the fight to become law, and this is the first instance where opponents of the bill can work to kill it. Technically speaking, a bill is “pigeonholed” when it is buried in committee (it happens so often there’s a word for it!). 

This should have been a very simple question. Although many presidents seem to act differently, the only government branch that can declare war is Congress (Art I, Sec. 8, Clause 11). That said, the President is commander-in-chief, a term with which you are hopefully familiar, thus the President is vested with the authority to lead the troops (that is, tell them where to go and what to do).

Bills for raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives. This is only true for bills relating to revenue though. All other bills can originate from either the House of Representatives or the Senate. In order for a bill to be passed, the House and the Senate must both approve, and the bill must be identical in passing through both the House and the Senate.

Article I, Section 7, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that in the event of a presidential veto, a 2/3 vote of both the House and the Senate in favor of the bill can override the veto and turn the bill into law.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war, as well as the ability to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water”