N O T E S. 1. Caucus. 1. The parliamentary party sitting as a body

1. Caucus. 1. The parliamentary party sitting as a body. 2. A meeting of party members in one of the Houses of a legisla­tive body for the purpose of making decisions on selections of party leaders and on legislative business. Republicans in Congress prefer to call their party meeting a conference. The term to caucus is also commonly used to describe any informal meeting of legislators seeking to reach agreement on a course of legislative action.

The majority caucus in each House makes important deci­sions regarding the organization of its chamber; these deci­sions then become official when they are ratified by that House in regular session.

2. Bill. A proposed law. Most legislative proposals before Con­gress are in the form of bills. Members of the House officially "introduce" bills by dropping them into a "hopper" (ящик); in the Senate bills are introduced by verbal announcement. All bills introduced during a two-year congressional term are designated "HR" in the House and "S", in the Senate, with consecutive numbers assigned in the order in which they are introduced in each chamber. Each bill must have three readings in each House, be approved by a majority vote in each House, and, normally, be signed by the president to become law. A bill passed in one House is called an "engrossed bill" (отредактированный законопроект, принятый одной из Па­лат), and the final authoritative copy of a bill passed by both Houses and signed by their presiding officers is called "enrolled bill"(окончательный проект закона для представ­ления на утверждение президента). Public bills deal with matters of general concern and may become public laws. Private bills are concerned with individual matters and be­come private laws if approved.

Thousands of bills are introduced into every Congress. They are drawn up by pressure groups, interested citizens, congressional committees, individual congressmen, and by members of the executive branch. Only members of Congress, however, can introduce bills in their respective chambers. The great majority of these bills are killed because the com­mittees in each House do not act upon them.

3. Filibuster. Organized obstructionist tactics in legislative bod­ies. It is a parliamentary device used in the United States Senate by which a minority of senators seek to frustrate the will of the majority by literally "talking a bill to death". A filibuster is a misuse of the freedom of debate, since full exploration of the merits and demerits of the pending measure is not its objective. Rather, the minority of senators seek to gain concessions or the withdrawal of the bill by delaying tactics. These include prolonged debate and speeches on re­levant and irrelevant topics, parliamentary manoeuvres, dilatory motions, and other tricks of the legislative game. The objective of the minority is to delay action on the meas­ure interminably, until the majority is forced by the press of other business to withdraw it from consideration.

4. The " seniority rule ". It is a custom whereby a member, who has served longest on the majority side of a committee be­comes chairman and otherwise acquires additional influence. Members are ranked from the chairmanship, according to length of service. Any Speaker owes his position largely to the seniority that he has accumulated through being regularly elected to a safe seat. His mandate means nothing in national terms and his position is no guarantee of more than average competence.

5. Whip. An assistant floor leader who aids the majority or minority leader of each party in each House of Congress. Whips are selected in party caucus usually on the recommenda­tion of the floor leader. On crucial issues, when close votes are anticipated, much depends on the party organization and the effectiveness of the whip's operations.

6. Rules Committee. A standing committee of the House of Representatives that can provide special rules under which specific bills will be debated, amended, and considered by the House. The Rules Committee functions as a valve or sifting device to control the flow of bills from the committees to the floor for consideration. The Rules Committee functions as a legislative traffic-control officer. In this role it can exercise a virtual veto power over bills reported out by other commit­tees. It can, conversely, send out bills to be considered under favorable procedures. The Rules Committee is one of the most powerful in the House today.

7. Committee on Committees. Party committees that determine the assignments of party members to standing committees in the House of Representatives.

Selections of committee personnel made unofficially in these ways are, typically, approved by the respective party cau­cuses and thence by their respective chambers. The power to assign committee members is significant because it will largely determine the role that an individual legislator will play as well as substantially influence the fate of any bill a committee might consider that session.

8. Checks and Balances. A major principle of the American gov­ernmental system whereby each department of the govern­ment exercises a check upon the actions of the others. The principle operates not only among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches but between the two Houses of the le­gislature and between the States and the national govern­ment. Each department has some authority to control the actions of one or more of the others by participation in their functions. Examples include the President's veto power and the congressional power to override the veto; judicial review of legislative and executive actions; presidential appointment of judges with senatorial approval; and the congressional pow­er to impeach.

The check and balance system stresses the interdepend­ence (rather than the complete separation) of the various units of government.