The rather mundanely-named report is the most important document that accompanies a bill out of committee (or subcommittee) and onto the floor. The report contains a succinct list of the committee’s (or subcommittee) findings on the bill—it is, essentially, a crib sheet on the bill. It assists Congress members who have not worked on the bill, or even heard of the bill yet, to understand the bill and what it does without actually needing to read the bill.

This is a relatively tricky question. There is no Rules Committee in the Senate, which is what this question asks you about. There is only a Rules Committee in the House—if this question referred to the House, then Rules Committee would be the correct answer. But, since the question asks you about the Senate, none of these answers are correct—generally speaking, bills are considered under Unanimous Consent Agreements in the Senate.

This should have been a fairly simple question. The only body that can override a veto is Congress. The Supreme Court has nothing to do with vetoes (unless there were somehow a question of law involved in the veto of a bill). Remember: if the President vetoes a bill, Congress can override that veto by a supermajority (2/3 vote) in each chamber. Otherwise, the bill dies, and must start from the very beginning.

This should have been a somewhat expected question, and hopefully a relatively simple one at that. The answer choices presented to you are vastly oversimplified, as the real procedure is rather more convoluted. At any rate, the correct answer is: (1) a bill is introduced; (2) the bill is then assigned to a committee (and generally then to a subcommittee); (3) assuming that the bill makes it out of [sub]committee, then the Rules committee will create a rule under which the bill is to be considered; finally, the bill is brought forth to the floor for debate and consideration under the Rule and is voted on.

This is another tricky procedural question. While the House requires amendments to be germane to the matter at hand, the Senate does not. In other words, in the House, if you are discussing, say, a bill to save baby seals from clubbing, the House cannot entertain amendments dealing with zebras—the amendment must be relevant to the matter at hand. In the Senate, however, there is no such requirement; in other words, you can offer any amendment to any bill at any time. 

On the basis of procedure alone, it is easier for a Senator to move a bill to a floor vote rather than a House member to do the same in the House. Remember: there is no Rules Committee in the Senate, so there are fewer steps necessary to move a bill to the floor for a vote. Other than the particulars, however, it makes sense logically for House Members to have a more difficult time of moving a bill to the floor; there are 435 members of the House, while there are merely 100 Senators. Imagine how chaotic it would be in the House if it were simple to move bills to the floor. 

None of these answers are correct. Recall that the question asks you to select the House’s sole powers—all of these answers are among the Senate’s powers. In other words, removing the President, ratifying treaties, and office confirmation are all within the sole powers of the Senate. A more correct answer for this question would be, for example, that a revenue bill must originate within the House.

While Congress is indeed responsible for overseeing both its own and the Executive branch’s administration of policy, there is no one designated slew of oversight committees. Rather, oversight duties are parceled out amongst a great many committees and subcommittees, which hold hearings to monitor their assigned situations. Each committee and subcommittee must conduct its oversight in addition to maintaining its other tasks; no single or even several strings of committees are thus dedicated solely to oversight operations. Standing committees deal with bills across a wide range of policy areas, while select committees can be convened on either a temporary or permanent basis to handle very specific issues. Joint committees are made up of members from both the House and Senate. Conference committees come into being when the Senate and the House pass differing forms of the same bill; conference committees are tasked with reconciling these differences and putting together a merged version of the bill in question.

Pork barrels are valued political tools in Congress – by awarding a federal contract to a company in their state/district, a Congress member benefits threefold: the member earns a potentially valuable corporate ally, the member’s state/district is given an economic boon, and at reelection time, the representative has a clear success story to showcase in hopes of winning voters’ loyalty. Casework is simply work done by Congressional representatives on behalf of individual constituents; much like pork barrels, casework earns representatives goodwill and clout among the voting public. Descriptive representation is gained by highlighting the relevant personal traits which a representative shares in common with their constituents (for example, religion, race, or gender). Substantive representation, on the contrary, involves appealing directly to the interests most cherished by the voting public, such as relieving poverty or promoting education.

Regardless of whether a bill originates in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, in either case it must first be introduced in the chamber of origin. Next, again in either chamber, the bill is sent to a subcommittee and then onward to a committee. After this stage, in the House, the bill is then forwarded to a Rules Committee, which sets up parameters around the bill’s allowable methods of debate before then passing it on to the full House. The bill continues on to the Conference Committee, which reconciles any difference it might have with its counterpart in the Senate and which then issues a final compromise version of the bill to be considered by the full House once again. A similar process unfolds in the Senate, where after being considered by both a subcommittee and a committee, the bill is referred to Senate Leadership, which plans out an appropriate time for the full Senate to debate the bill. Once a full Senate debate has taken place, the bill is given over to the Conference Committee and then returns to stand before the full Senate again. The rigors of each of these systems ensure that the majority of bills die a laborious death somewhere in the midst of this cycle.