Amendment - A proposal of a member of Congress to alter the language, provisions or stipulations in a bill, resolution, amendment, motion, treaty or in another amendment. An amendment is usually printed, debated and voted upon in the same manner as a bill.

Appropriations - Provision of law that provides authority for Federal agencies to obligate funds and to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. Appropriations for the Federal government are provided both in annual appropriations acts and in permanent provisions of law.

Authorization - Basic, substantive legislation that establishes or continues the legal operation of a federal program or agency, either indefinitely or for a specific period of time, or which sanctions a particular type of obligation or expenditure. An authorization normally is a prerequisite for an appropriation or other kind of budget authority. Under the rules of both houses, the appropriation for a program or agency may not be considered until its authorization has been considered. An authorization also may limit the amount of budget authority to be provided or may authorize the appropriation of "such sums as may be necessary."

Clause - A pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause.

Cloture - The process by which a filibuster can be ended in the Senate other than by unanimous consent. A motion for cloture can apply to any measure before the Senate, including a proposal to change the chamber's rules. A cloture motion requires the signatures of 16 senators to be introduced. To end a filibuster, the cloture motion must obtain the votes of three-fifths of the entire Senate membership (60 if there are no vacancies), except when the filibuster is against a proposal to amend the standing rules of the Senate and a two-thirds vote of senators present and voting is required. The cloture request is put to a roll-call vote one hour after the Senate meets on the second day following the introduction of the motion. If approved, cloture limits each senator to one hour of debate. The bill or amendment in question comes to a final vote after 30 hours of consideration (including debate time it takes to conduct roll calls, quorum calls and other procedural motions.)

Committees

  “In Committee” –A bill referred to as ‘in committee’ is in its beginning stage after being introduced by a sponsor or sponsors. All bills and resolutions are "referred" to one or more House or Senate committees according their specific rules and considered in detail by the respective committee. For example, the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee will consider a bill's potential impact on the Federal Budget. If the committee approves the bill, it moves on in the legislative process. Committees reject bills by simply not acting on them. Bills that fail to get committee action are said to have "died in committee," as many do.
Conference Committee - A temporary, ad hoc panel composed of House and Senate conferees that are formed for the purpose of reconciling differences in legislation that has passed both chambers. Conference committees are usually convened to resolve bicameral differences on major and controversial legislation.

Joint Committee - A committee composed of an equal number of members of both the House and the Senate. A joint committee may be investigative or research oriented. As of 1993 only four joint committees remain: Joint Economic, Joint Taxation, Joint Library, and Joint Printing. None has the authority to report legislation. Standing joint committees are permanent joint committees established by law. The law fixes the number of the majority and minority members from each house.

Standing Committee – Committees that are permanently established by House and Senate rules, the standing committees are legislative committees. Legislation may be referred to them and they may report bills and resolutions to their parent chambers.

Committee Hearings - Committee sessions for taking testimony from witnesses. At hearings on legislation, witnesses usually include specialists, government officials and spokesmen for persons or entities affected by the bill or bills under study. The public and press may attend open hearings, but are barred from closed or "executive" hearings.  However the majority of hearings are open to the public.

Discretionary Spending - There are two types of government spending — discretionary and mandatory. Discretionary spending, which accounts for roughly one-third of all Federal spending, includes money for things like the Army, FBI, the Coast Guard, and highway projects. Congress explicitly determines how much to spend (or not spend) on these programs on an annual basis

Mandatory Spending (also known as Non-Discretionary Spending) – Mandatory spending accounts for two-thirds of all government spending. This kind of spending is authorized by permanent laws. It includes entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps — programs through which individuals receive benefits based on their age, income, or other criteria. Spending levels in these areas are dictated by the number of people who sign up for these benefits, rather than by Congress

Open for Comment – After Congressional bills become laws, federal agencies are responsible for putting those laws into action through the regulatory process. To see the step by step process of rulemaking, visit reginfo.com to view their Regulatory Map. This process may include an agency that initiates a rulemaking activity, publishes it to regulations.gov and then gives the public the opportunity to comment on this rule for a specified timeframe. During that time, the regulation is known as ‘open for comment.’

Oversight - Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.

Reauthorization - Reauthorization is the process by which Congress prescribes changes, additions, and deletions to legislation to adjust the current program to meet changing needs. Reauthorization is most commonly referred to education programs, such as the Reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (also known as ‘No Child Left Behind’), which the Administration released in March 2010 and Congress is now considering.

Resolution - Sentiment of one chamber on an issue, or a measure to carry out the administrative or procedural business of the chamber.  A resolution does not become law. Represented as H. Res. or S. Res.

Continuing Resolution - A joint resolution enacted by Congress and signed by the president (when the new fiscal year is about to begin or has begun) to provide new budget authority for federal agencies and programs to continue in operation until the regular appropriations acts are enacted.

The continuing resolution usually specifies a maximum rate at which an agency may incur obligations, based on the rate of the prior year, the president's budget request or an appropriations bill passed by either or both houses of Congress but not yet enacted.

Continuing resolutions are also called "CRs" or continuing appropriations.

Joint Resolution - A legislative measure that requires approval by the Senate and the House and is presented to the President for his/her approval or disapproval, in exactly the same case as a bill.

Sunset Clause - Measure within a statute, regulation or other law that provides that the law shall cease to have effect after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend the law. Most laws do not have sunset clauses and therefore remain in force indefinitely.