American GovernmentThe Legislative Process

“I’m Just a Bill”

How a Bill Becomes a Law

The Legislative Process

• Idea• All legislation begins as an idea or concept. Ideas and

concepts can come from a variety of sources. The process begins when a Senator or Representative decides to author a bill.

• The Author • A bill is drafted for the congressman for introduction. If the

author is a Senator, the bill is introduced in the Senate. If the author is a member of Congress, the bill is introduced in the House of Representatives.

• First Reading / Introduction• A bill is introduced or read the first time when the bill

number, the name of the author, and the descriptive title of the bill is read on the floor of the house.

Forms of Congressional Action

• Bills (normal legislation)• Joint Resolutions

• Essentially the same as regular bills

• Concurrent Resolutions• A matter affecting the operations of both Houses

is usually initiated by a concurrent resolution

• Simple Resolutions• A matter concerning the rules, the operation, or

the opinion of either House alone is initiated by a simple resolution.

Writing Bills

• A bill is drafted as legislation. Who writes it? • A member of congress• Staffers• Lobbyists• Interests groups• Members of the Executive Branch• Departments and Agencies

• Strategic bill writing to ensure passage is common.

Introduction & Assignment

• Introducing the Bill• A bill is introduced in the House when a rep places it

in the "hopper", a wooden box provided for that purpose located on the side of the rostrum in the House Chamber.

• A bill can be introduced first in either the House or the Senate (exception: appropriations).

• Members of Congress are the only ones who can formally introduce a bill (though a Congressman can introduce a bill for someone ex. the President).

• Once it is introduced, the Speaker of the House (in a House bill) will take it and assign it to a committee.

Referal to Committee

• Each committee's jurisdiction is divided into certain subject matters under the rules of each House. Bills are sent to committees that have jurisdiction over the subject-area of the bill.

• The Speaker has the option of referring a bill to just one committee or making a multiple referral: sending it to several committees.

Dead End

• The S of H refers it to committee. 9 times out of 10, that’s it. Most bills don’t even get a hearing. Why?• a. It might not have much support in the

committee• b. The committee might not have enough time to

get to it (impossible to get to all of them)• c. It could be a duplicate bill (was introduced by

more than one Congressman). The committee choses one as ‘the vehicle’ and ignores the others.

Committees

• There are a variety of committees that specialize on particular issue areas. But structurally there are two kinds of committees:• a. Standing committees

• No set duration• Set jurisdiction

• b. Temporary committees• Three most important standing House

committees• a. Rules Committee• b. Appropriations Committee• c. Ways and Means Committee

U.S. Congressional Committees

House of Representatives Senate Joint

• Agriculture• Appropriations• Armed Services• Budget• Education and the Workforce• Energy and Commerce• Financial Services• Government Reform • Homeland Security• House Administration• Intelligence (Permanent Select)• International Relations• Judiciary• Resources• Rules• Science• Small Business• Standards of Official Conduct• Transportation and Infrastructure• Veterans' Affairs• Ways and Means• (Whole)

• Aging (Special)• Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry• Appropriations• Armed Services• Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs• Budget• Commerce, Science and Transportation• Energy and Natural Resources• Ethics (Select)• Environment and Public Works• Finance• Foreign Relations• Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions• Homeland Security and Governmental

Affairs• Indian Affairs• Intelligence (Select)• Judiciary• Rules and Administration• Small Business and Entrepreneurship• Veterans' Affairs

• Conference• Economic• Library• Printing

Committee Hearings & Markup

HEARINGS•If the bill is important enough, the committee may hold public hearings on it where they deliberate the bill, its merits, and its statutory language. •Interest groups and interested individuals may testify for and/or against the bill.

MARKUP•After hearings comes the markup session.•The views of both sides are studied in detail and at the conclusion of deliberation a vote is taken to determine the action of the committee.•In the “markup” session changes to the language of the bill are considered.

Committee Action

• A standing committee may report a bill to the floor in the same way that a subcommittee reports a bill to the full committee. The committee may:A. Report the bill with favorable recommendation.B. Report the bill with amendments with favorable

recommendation.C. Report the bill without recommendation.D. Report the bill with amendments but without

recommendation.E. Report the bill with the recommendation that the bill be

referred to another committee.F. Take no action on a bill (table the bill).G. Vote to not report a bill out of committee.H. Vote to refer it back to subcommittee.

Committee Action (con’t)

• Everything a committee can do to a bill, a subcommittee can do to a bill (except report the bill to the floor, the subcommittee reports the bill to the full committee).

• In both houses, a majority vote of the members serving on a committee is necessary to report a bill.

• If a committee fails to report a bill, a motion to discharge the committee from consideration of the bill may be offered in the house having possession of the bill.

• If this motion is approved by a vote of a majority of the members elected and serving, the bill is then placed in position on the calendar for floor action.

• Discharge motions are very rare.

Voting

• Why do members vote one way or the other?• Personal ideology• District concerns (constituency)• Party & Party leaders• Interest groups• President

The Golden Rules

• Once the bill is reported out the next step is going to the Rules Committee

• Important bills always go to the Rules Committee• The Rules Committee is controlled by the majority party.• The Rules Committee sets procedure (the rules) for how

the bill will handled from that point on. Procedure can influence the outcome of the bill.

• The Rules Committee can also kill a bill (this is atypical).• The Rules Committee will usually pass it on to the house

with a Rule assigned to it. It will choose bills that will help the party. • If the party likes the bill, it can be assigned a closed rule (to

prevent mucking). • If the party doesn’t like the bill, it can assign it an open rule (so it

can be changed to better suit the party).

The Floor :Committee of the Whole

• Committee of the Whole House• To make work easier, the House will do work on bills

on the floor with a smaller group of interested legislators.

• The CWH enables the House to act with a quorum of less than the requisite majority of 218.

• A quorum in the CWH is 100 members. This committee does the yeoman’s work on the debate and amendment process for the bill.

• Usually composed of legislators most interested in the bill’s passage or non-passage.

Debate

Second Reading•After general debate on a bill, the Chairman terminates the debate when all the time allowed under the rule has been consumed. •Then the second reading of the bill begins. The second reading is a section-by-section reading during which time germane amendments may be offered to a section when it is read (if amendments are allowed).

Amendments: Germaneness

• The rules of the House prohibit amendments of a subject matter different from the text under consideration.

• This rule, commonly known as the germaneness rule, is considered the single most important rule of the House of Representatives.

• It is necessary because of the obvious need to keep the focus of a body the size of the House on a predictable subject matter.

• The germaneness rule applies to the proceedings in the House, the Committee of the Whole, and the standing committees.

• There are hundreds of prior rulings or "precedents" on germaneness available to guide the Chair.

Strategic Amendments:

• King of the Hill• the last amendment adopted in the

Committee of the Whole is reported back to the House for a vote on final passage

• Queen of the Hill• the amendment with the most votes

adopted in the Committee of the Whole is reported back to the House for a vote on final passage

The Floor: Final Consideration

• The third reading is by title only, and the bill is put to a vote, which may be by voice or roll call, depending on the circumstances and parliamentary rules.

One down…

• In order to become law, the bill must be passed in its exact form by the Senate. The same goes for bills that start in the Senate.

The Senate

• The process in the Senate is similar to the House (standing committees, floor action, etc.) but different in many very significant ways.

• Bills that are reported out of committee are put in an automatic que.

• The Senate must hear each bill in chronological order as they are reported out of committee, unless it passes a Unanimous Consent Agreement (UCA).

• If a bill is very important--you want to jump the que. If you can get every Senator to agree to a UCA, then you can jump it to the head of the line. If one Senator refuses, it has to wait. UCA’s are fairly common.

• The Presiding Officer of the Senate is the Vice President, but the real show is run by party leaders (majority and minority leaders).

UCAs

• There are no limits on amendments to a bill in the United States Senate-- including germaneness

• There is no limit on debate on a bill.• You can, however, draft a UCA with limits on

debate and on germaneness. etc. • Problem: must receive unanimous consent.

Every Senator has to agree to suspend the rules under the UCA. Otherwise, it goes out under the normal rules.

Strategic Debate: The Filibuster

• How do you end debate? Vote on it. • However, if a group of Senators doesn’t

want to end debate, they can filibuster.• A filibuster is an attempt to kill a bill by

refusing to end debate on the bill.• In order to filibuster a bill, a senator must get

recognized to speak.• By continuing to talk (never giving up the

floor), a Senator can continue debate indefinitely.

Filibuster Rules

• Conditions on the Filibuster.• i. If he stops talking or leaves, he gives up the floor

and the filibuster continues. • ii. He cannot sit down. • iii. He must stand and talk on the floor.• iv. He can eat.• v. He cannot leave the floor to go to the rest room.

• All Senators must remain during debate, Federal Marshals will prevent Senators from leaving.

• What do you talk about? Read the bible, the constitution, whatever. Ex. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Cloture: Ending the Filibuster

• The record for the single longest filibuster done by a single Senator: 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957.

• You can do tag-team filibusters (you can trade off recognition among each other).

• Ending the filibuster involves either waiting the Senator out, or getting enough votes for a cloture vote.

• A cloture vote is 60 Senators agreeing to end the debate and vote on the measure. This can be very difficult to accomplish.

• How is a cloture vote introduced? Any Senator in the chamber can make a motion to have cloture. They immediately have a vote, but the person talking doesn’t loose the floor. If they get 60 or more, the timetable kicks in and the debate will start. If not, the filibuster continues…you can have multiple cloture votes.

Consequences

• his makes the Senate a very difficult consensus body because individual Senators have so much power. They are each individually ‘islands of power’ in the sea of Congress.

• There’s a norm against having filibusters all the time (especially on relatively small matters) and thus frequent use can make the Senator unpopular (making it difficult for her to get her legislation passed).

Filibuster in History

A House Divided…

• What happens if the bill passes, but the bills in the Senate and in the House are in any way different?

• When two bills are different, they must be reconciled (reconciliation bill). The most prominent way that important bills are reconciled is in conference.

• Conference committees are committees that have members from both chambers of Congress that are selected by the majority parties in either house, and they compromise/work out the details to produce one bill.

• The reconciliation bill is then sent to the House and the Senate where the vote is up or down on passing or rejecting the bill (no amendments are allowed to a reconciliation bill).

Almost there…

• Once the bill has passed the bill, it goes to the President. The president can• a) sign the bill. It would then be law.• b) the president can veto the bill.• c) Not sign it (pocket veto) – becomes law after 10 days

• If the President vetoes the bill it goes back to Congress • a. Congress can let the bill die with that.• b. Congress can override the veto (it requires 2/3rds of both

the House and the Senate to override a veto).• c. The veto is a ‘negative’ power of the President (it is a

power that involves ‘stopping’ legislation as opposed to creating new or different legislation).