The sweeping of the Senate Ethics Committee hearing room for surveillance bugs is based on a real practice before each meeting of that committee, which meets in secret. In the real Senate, as in "Alpha House," there are six members of the committee, three from each party.
Robert is charged with receiving gifts in exchange for his vote in favor of the mohair subsidy. The $750,000 subsidy to mohair goat herds, began in 1949 when military uniforms included mohair (they are now made of synthetic fibers), and has survived several congressional efforts to kill it, including one in 2010 by GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz and former Rep. Anthony Weiner.
When Gil-John starts reading from SR 338, section D, about when Ethics Committee members must recuse themselves from cases, the language is real.
Tammy asks Gil-John what he would do to the killer if his wife was "raped and murdered." This is based on a similar question that CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked Governor Michael Dukakis during a 1988 presidential debate with Vice-President George H.W. Bush. When Dukakis answered without any passion, it contributed to his defeat.
The musician Charles Bradley, first known as a James Brown impersonator, is singing "Why Is It So Hard to Make It In America?" His producer and guitarist, Tom Brenneck, says the hit was written when the group was touring in France before they became famous in the U.S. when some French women asked them that question.