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Quiz: Congress: Rules, Customs, and History

November 17, 2019

How many votes does it take to stop a filibuster? What is the Hastert Rule? Test your knowledge with our quiz.

Before he became president, Lyndon Johnson was a legendary Senate Majority Leader. Which of the following was not one of his accomplishments as a senator?*
- Shepherding passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957
- Brokering the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Pushing to get the U.S. into the Space Race
- Rising to the position of majority leader in only seven years
Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina holds the record for the longest filibuster in Senate history. What was he trying to block?*
- Civil Rights Act of 1957
- Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950
- Air Pollution Control Act of 1955
- Fair Housing Act of 1968
Where does the word filibuster come from?*
- The French word for blockade
- The Latin word for ruin
- The Italian word for strangle
- The Dutch word for Pirate
Which Senate Majority Leader changed the rules for the number of votes needed to stop a filibuster of appointments made by President Obama?*
- Tom Daschle
- Bill Frist
- Harry Reid
- Mitch McConnell
The Senate needed only a simple majority to approve the two newest Supreme Court Justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.*
- True
- False
The House of Representatives has its own complicated set of rules and customs. The so-called “Hastert Rule” is an unwritten rule that the Speaker of the House should not allow a vote on a bill unless:*
- The president has already signaled support
- It has some bipartisan support
- It has support from committee chairs
- The majority party is unified behind it
When the 116th Congress began on January 3, 2019, the Senate had 53 Republicans and:*
- 47 Democrats
- 45 Democrats, plus two Independents who vote with the Democrats
- 45 Democrats, plus two Independents who split their votes
- 45 Democrats, one independent, and one Socialist
The House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in April of this year, but the bill is stalled in the Senate because:*
- It imposes additional restrictions on guns
- It cuts funding for law enforcement
- It weakens legal protections for abused women
- It is not budget-neutral
Of all the bills passed by the last Congress (that’s the 115th Congress, which lasted from January 2017 until January 2019), how many were merely ceremonial?*
- One-fifth
- One-quarter
- One-third
- Two-thirds
In October 2019, what percentage of Americans said they approved of the job Congress is doing?*
- 11 percent
- 17 percent
- 25 percent
- 36 percent

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