AP US Government & Politics — Unit 2: Interactions Among Branches of Government

What AP US Government & Politics Unit 2 covers

The College Board Course and Exam Description breaks Unit 2 into 15 topics:

1. 2.1 Congress: Senate and House of Representatives
2. 2.2 Structures
3. Powers
4. and Functions of Congress
5. 2.3 Congressional Behavior
6. 2.4 Roles and Powers of the President
7. 2.5 Checks on the Presidency
8. 2.6 Expansion of Presidential Power
9. 2.7 Presidential Communication
10. 2.8 The Bureaucracy
11. 2.9 Discretionary and Rule-Making Authority
12. 2.10 Holding the Bureaucracy Accountable
13. 2.11 The Court System
14. 2.12 The Supreme Court
15. 2.13 Legitimacy of the Judicial Branch

AP US Government & Politics Unit 2 practice questions

• Wyoming has fewer people than a single mid-size city, yet it gets the exact same number of votes in one chamber of Congress as California. Which chamber, and what design principle does that lock in?

  The Senate gives every state 2 senators regardless of size; the House is apportioned by population. Together they reflect republicanism through a bicameral structure.

• One chamber lets a member talk for as long as they want; the other caps debate tightly and runs on strict rules. Which is which, and why does size cause the difference?

  The Senate (100) allows extended debate; the House (435) restricts it with formal rules. Smaller membership lets the Senate stay loose; the House's size forces structure.

• Every two years, the entire membership of one chamber faces voters, but only a third of the other chamber does. Which arrangement makes the Senate a 'continuous body'?

  All 435 House seats are up every 2 years; only one-third of the Senate is up each election. Because two-thirds of senators always carry over, the Senate never fully turns over — it is continuous.

• Congress charters a national bank, even though 'creating a bank' appears nowhere in Article I. They point to the tail end of the enumerated-powers list to justify it. What clause are they leaning on?

  The necessary and proper (elastic) clause lets Congress create implied powers like a bank. It covers laws needed to carry out its enumerated powers, beyond the explicit list.

• A new tax bill to fund veterans' programs needs to start somewhere. The House leadership insists it cannot legally begin in the Senate. What constitutional rule are they invoking?

  The Origination Clause — all revenue (tax) bills must originate in the House of Representatives. The Senate may amend them, but cannot introduce them first.

• A House member wants a popular bill voted on, but the committee chair is sitting on it to let it quietly die. The member gathers a majority of signatures to drag it onto the floor anyway. What is this maneuver?

  A discharge petition — 218 members' signatures force a stuck bill onto the floor.

• A single senator wants to kill a bill they cannot defeat by vote, so they hold the floor and refuse to stop talking. What tactic is this, and what does it take to shut it down?

  A filibuster, ended only by cloture — a three-fifths Senate vote (60 of 100).

• The House passes a tax bill set at 5%; the Senate passes its own version at 7% with extra provisions. Both must agree on identical text before it reaches the president. What body reconciles the two versions?

  A conference committee merges both chambers' versions into one compromise bill. Both chambers must then re-pass it.

+ 47 more AP US Government & Politics cards in the app.

Key terms in Unit 2

These 12 terms show up in the Unit 2 cards. Each one links to its definition in the AP US Government & Politics key-term reference.

• Appellate Jurisdiction
• Baker v. Carr (1962)
• Conference Committee
• Congressional Oversight
• Discretionary Spending
• Equal Protection Clause
• House of Representatives
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Original Jurisdiction
• Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
• Pork-Barrel Spending
• Rulemaking Authority