Political terms in plain English: a dictionary

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Affordable Care Act: The 2010 health law, often called Obamacare or the ACA. It set up insurance marketplaces with help paying premiums, let states expand Medicaid, and bars insurers from turning people away or charging them more for pre-existing conditions.
Appropriations: The yearly bills in which Congress decides how much money each federal agency may spend.

Caucus: A group of lawmakers who meet to push shared goals. The word also means all of one party's members in the House or in the Senate, who choose that party's leaders.
Certification: The official sign-off on an election count by county and state officials. Until then the numbers are unofficial.
Cloture: The Senate vote that ends debate so a bill or a nominee can get a final vote. On most bills it takes 60 of the 100 senators.
Contempt of Congress: A finding that someone defied a congressional subpoena or got in the way of an investigation. The House or Senate can send it to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Continuing resolution: A stopgap bill that keeps the government funded, usually at current levels, when Congress has not finished its yearly spending bills.
Cost-of-living adjustment: The yearly raise in Social Security checks, often called the COLA. It is tied to inflation, so benefits keep up with prices.

Debt limit: The legal cap on how much the Treasury may borrow to pay bills Congress has already approved. Raising it does not approve any new spending. Also called the debt ceiling.
Discharge petition: A way for House members to force a vote on a bill that leaders will not bring up. It needs the signatures of 218 members, a majority of the House.

Emoluments clause: A part of the Constitution that bars federal officials, the president included, from taking gifts, payments or titles from foreign governments unless Congress agrees.
Executive order: A written order from the president telling federal agencies how to carry out the law. It does not need a vote in Congress, and a court or a later president can undo it.

Filibuster: A Senate tactic for blocking a vote by refusing to end debate. It takes 60 of the 100 senators to cut it off, which is why most bills need 60 votes in the Senate and not 51.

Gerrymandering: Drawing the lines of voting districts to favor one party or group.
Government shutdown: What happens when funding runs out because Congress and the president have not agreed on a spending bill. Many federal offices close, and many federal workers go without pay until a bill is signed.

Hatch Act: A 1939 law that limits political campaigning by most federal employees while they are on duty or acting in their official role.

Impeachment: A formal charge of wrongdoing against a president, judge or other federal official. The House brings it by a simple majority. The Senate then holds a trial, and it takes two-thirds of the senators to convict and remove.
Injunction: A court order telling someone to do something or to stop doing it, often while a lawsuit is still being decided.
Inspector general: An independent watchdog inside a federal agency who audits it and investigates waste, fraud and abuse.

Lame duck: An official or a Congress in the weeks between an election and the day the winners take office. A lame-duck Congress can still pass laws.

Medicaid: The health insurance program for people with low incomes, paid for jointly by the federal government and the states. It also pays for most long-term nursing home care.
Medicare: The federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and for some younger people with disabilities.
Midterms: The national elections held halfway through a president's four-year term. All 435 House seats and about a third of the Senate are on the ballot.

PAC: A political action committee: a group that raises money to give to candidates, within limits set by law.
Pardon: The president's power to forgive a federal crime and lift its punishment. It does not reach crimes under state law.
Provisional ballot: A ballot given to a voter whose eligibility is in question at the polls. It is counted once officials confirm the voter was eligible.
PVI: The Cook Partisan Voter Index: how a district or state votes compared with the country as a whole. R+5 means it votes five points more Republican than the nation.

Reconciliation: A special budget process that lets the Senate pass certain tax and spending bills with a simple majority, so they cannot be blocked by a filibuster.
Recount: A second count of the ballots. Some states order one automatically when the margin is very small; in others a candidate has to ask.
Redistricting: Redrawing the lines of voting districts. It normally follows the census every ten years, though some states redraw in the middle of a decade.
Runoff: A second election between the top candidates, held when nobody wins the share of the vote the state requires.

SNAP: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once called food stamps: monthly help buying groceries for people with low incomes.
Subpoena: A legal order to hand over documents or to testify. Ignoring one from a court or from Congress can bring contempt charges.
Super PAC: A committee that may raise and spend unlimited money for or against candidates, but may not give to them or coordinate with their campaigns.

Tariff: A tax on goods brought in from other countries. The company importing the goods pays it, and the cost is often passed on to shoppers in higher prices.
Toss-up: A forecaster's rating for a race that either party has a good chance of winning.

Veto: The president's refusal to sign a bill into law. Congress can override it only with a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate.

War Powers Resolution: A 1973 law that requires the president to tell Congress within 48 hours of sending troops into hostilities, and to end the mission within 60 days, plus 30 days to withdraw, unless Congress approves it.