How a Bill Becomes a Law: The House:
The First Steps
A bill is a proposed law presented to the House or Senate for consideration.
Most bills are born in the executive branch.
Business, labor, agriculture, and other special interests groups often draft measures as well.
Many others are born in the standing committees of Congress.
Measures dealing with any other matter may be introduced in either chamber.
Only members can introduce bills in the House, and they do so by dropping them into the “hopper,” a box hanging on the edge of the clerk’s desk.
Types of Bills and Resolutions
There are two types of bills: public bills and private bills.
Public bills are measures applying to the nation as a whole.
Private bills are measures that apply to certain persons of places rather than to the entire nation.
Joint resolutions are similar to bills, and when passed have the force of law.
Joint resolutions most often deal with unusual or temporary matters.
They are also used to propose constitutional amendments and they have been used to annex territories.
Concurrent resolutions deal with matters in which the House and Senate must act jointly.
hey do not have the force of law and do not require the President’s signature.
Concurrent resolutions are used most often by Congress to state a position on some matter.
Resolutions deal with matters concerning either house alone and are taken up only by that house.
They are regularly used for such things as the adoption of a new rule of procedure of the amendment of some existing rule.
Resolutions do not have the force of law and do not require the President’s signature.
A bill or resolution usually deals with a single subject, but sometimes a rider dealing with an unrelated matter is included.
A rider is a provision not likely to pass on its own merit that is attached to an important measure certain to pass.
Its sponsors hope that it will “ride” through the legislative process on the strength of the main measure.
Most are tacked onto appropriations measures.
The First Reading
The clerk of the House numbers each bill as it is introduced.
The clerk also gives each bill a short title-a brief summary of its principal contents.
The bill is then entered in the House Journal and in the Congressional Record for the day.
Members have five days in which to make changes in each temporary edition.
They often insert speeches that were in fact never made, reconstruct “debates,” and revise thoughtless or inaccurate remarks.
With these actions the bill has received its first reading.
All bills are printed immediately after introduction and distributed to the members.
Each bill that is finally passed in either house is given three readings along the legislative route.
In the House, second reading comes during floor consideration, if the measure gets that far.
Third reading takes place just before the final vote on the measure.
The three readings are intended to ensure careful consideration of bills.
After the first reading, the Speaker refers the bill to the appropriate standing committee. That is, the proposal is sent to the committee that has jurisdiction over its subject matter.
The Bill in Committee
The standing committees sift through all of the many bills referred to them-rejecting most, considering and reporting only those they find to be worthy of floor consideration.
Most of the thousands of bills introduced in each session of Congress die in committee.
If a bill is buried but the majority of the House wants to consider it, the bill can be blasted out of the committee with a discharge petition.
A discharge petition enables members to force a bill that has remained in committee 30 days onto the floor for consideration.
If a discharge motion is signed by 218 of the House members, the committee has seven days to report the bill.
Gathering Information
Those bills that a committee, or at least its chairman, does wish to consider, are discussed at times chosen by the chairman.
Most committees do most of their work through their several subcommittees.
Where an important or controversial bill is involved, a committee, or subcommittee, holds public hearings on the measure.
These public hearings are information-gathering.
If necessary, a committee can force a witness to testify under threat of imprisonment.
Occasionally, a subcommittee will make a junket, or trip, to locations affected by a measure.
Committee Action
When a subcommittee has completed its work on a bill, the measure goes to the full committee.
The body may:
Report the bill favorably, with a “do pass” recommendation. It is then the chairman’s job to steer the bill through debate on the floor.
Refuse to report the bill-that is, pigeonhole it. Again, this is the fate suffered by most measures in both houses.
Report the bill in amended form. Many bills are changed in committee, and several bills on the same subject may be combined into a single measure.
Report the bill with an unfavorable recommendation. This does not often happen. Occasionally, however, a committee feels that the full House should have a chance to consider a bill or does not want to take the responsibility for killing it.
Report a committee bill. This is an entirely new bill that the committee has substituted for one or several bills referred to it.
Scheduling Floor Debate
Calendars
Before it goes to the floor for consideration, a bill reported by a standing committee is placed on one of several calendars.
A calendar is a schedule of the order in which bills will be taken up on the floor.
There are five calendars in the House:
The Calendar of the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, commonly known as the Union Calendar, for all bills having to do with revenues, appropriations, or government property.
The House Calendar, for all the public bills.
The Calendar of the Committee of the Whole House, commonly called the Private Calendar, for all private bills.
The Corrections Calendar, for all bills form the Union or House Calendar taken out of order by unanimous consent of the House of Representatives. These are most often minor bills to which there is no opposition.
The Discharge Calendar, for petitions to discharge bills from committee.
Rules
The Rules Committee plays a critical role in the legislative process of the House.
It must grant a rule before most bills can in fact reach the floor.
By not granting a rule for a bill, the Rules Committee can effectively kill it.
When the Rules Committee does grant a rule, it may be a special rule.
A special rule regularly sets a time limit on floor debate.
On certain days, the House may suspend its rules.
It must be approved by a two-thirds vote.
When that happens, the House moves so far away from its established operating procedures that a measure can go through all the many steps necessary to enactment in a single day.
The Bill on the Floor
If the bill finally reaches the floor, it receives its second reading in the House.
The more important measures are considered in the Committee of the Whole, an old parliamentary device for speeding business on the floor.
When the House resolves itself into the Committee of the Whole, the Speaker steps down because the full House of Rep. is no longer in session.
General debating begins, and the bill receives a second reading, section by section.
As each section is read, amendments may be offered.
Votes are taken on each section and its amendment as the reading proceeds.
When the bill has been gone through, the Committee of the Whole has completed its work.
It then rises, dissolves itself, and the House is back in session. The House formally adopts the committee’s work.
Debate
There are many limits on floor debate.
No member may hold the floor for more than an hour without unanimous consent to speak for a longer time.
The Speaker has the power to force any member who strays from the subject at hand to give up the floor.
The majority and minority floor leaders generally decide in advance how they will split the time spent on the bill.
Any member may demand a vote on the issue before the House.
If that motion passes, only 40 minutes of further debate are allowed before a vote is taken.
This device is the only motion that can be used in the House to close debate.
Voting
A bill may be the subject of several votes on the floor.
If amendments are offered, members must vote on each of them.
A number of procedural motions may be offered.
The members must vote on each of these motions.
The House uses four different methods for taking floor votes:
Voice Votes
If any member thinks the Speaker has erred in judging a voice vote, he/she may demand a standing vote, also known as the division of the House.
One fifth of a quorum can demand a teller vote.
A roll-call vote may be demanded by one fifth of the members present.
Voting procedures are much the same in the Senate. Senate does not take teller votes or the use of the electronic voting process.
Final Steps
Once a bill has been approved at second reading, it is engrossed.
This means the bill is printed in its final form.
Then it is read a third time, by title, and a final vote is taken.
If the bill is approved, the Speaker signs it.
A page-a legislative aid-then carries it to the Senate and places it on the Senate president’s desk.
Try this fun game of how a bill becomes a law (click on the link) www.icivics.org/game/popout/593
Review Questions:
To propose a constitutional amendment, Congress uses a
a. public bill. c. concurrent resolution.
b. joint resolution. d. rider.
How and when bills reach the floor of the House is decided by the
a. Ways and Means Committee. c. Appropriations Committee.
b. Rules Committee. d. Judiciary Committee.
When a bill is introduced in the House, it is FIRST
a. given to the Rules Committee. c. given a number and title.
b. read aloud in full. d. debated by the full House.
Answers: B / B / C
Introducing the Bill
Bills are introduced by senators, who are formally recognized for that purpose.
A measure is then given a number and short title, read twice, and referred to committee, where bills are dealt with much as they are in the House.
Rules for Debate
Floor debate is strictly limited in the House, but almost unrestrained in the Senate.
Senators may speak on the floor as long as they please.
The Senate’s rules do not allow any member to move the previous question.
The Senate’s consideration of most bills is brought to a close by unanimous consent agreements.
The Senate does have a “two-speech rule.”
No senator may speak more than twice on a given question on the same legislative day.
The Filibuster
A filibuster is an attempt to “talk a bill to death.”
It is a stalling tactic, a process in which a minority of senators seeks to delay or prevent Senate action on a measure.
Filibusters try to monopolize the Senate floor and its time that the Senate must either drop the bill or change it in some manner acceptable to the minority.
Talk-and more talk-is the filibusters’ major weapon.
Senators may use time-killing motions, quorum calls, and other parliamentary maneuvers.
The Senate often tries to beat off a filibuster with lengthy, even day-and-night, sessions to wear down the participants.
At times, some little-observed rules are quite strictly enforced. Such as, senators must stand or walk about while speaking.
Cloture Rule
The Senate’s real check on the filibuster is its Cloture Rule, Rule XXII in the Standing Rules of the Senate.
The Cloture Rule was first adopted after a filibuster lasted for three weeks.
Rule XXII provides for cloture-limiting debate.
It can be brought into play only by a special procedure.
A vote to invoke the rule must be taken two days after a petition calling for that action has been submitted by at least 16 members of Senate.
If at least three fifths of the full Senate then vote for the motion, the rule becomes effective.
No more than another 30 hours of floor time may be spent on the measure.
Invoking the rule is no easy matter and is rarely done.
Conference Committees
Any measure enacted by Congress must have been passed by both houses in identical form.
There are times when the House or the Senate will not accept the other’s version of a bill.
When this happens, the measure is turned over to a conference committee, a temporary joint committee of the two houses.
It seeks to iron out the differences and come up with a compromise bill.
Both the House and Senate rules restrict a conference committee to the consideration of those points in a bill on which the two houses disagree.
The committee cannot include any new material.
The conferees, or leading members of the standing committee, make changes that were not considered in either house.
Once the conferees agree, their bill is submitted to both houses. It must be accepted or rejected without amendment.
The President Acts
Every bill must be presented to the President to become law.
The Constitution presents the President with four options:
The President my sign the bill, and then it becomes law.
Veto-refuse to sign the bill. The measure is then returned to the house in which it originated, with the President’s objections. Congress may pass the bill over the veto by a two-thirds vote.
The President may allow the bill to become law without signing it-by not acting on it within 10 days.
Pocket veto. If Congress adjourns its session within 10 days of submitting a bill to the President, and the President does not act, the measure dies.
Video on How a Bill becomes a law: www.youtube.com/watch?v=66f4-NKEYz4
Second video on how a Bill becomes a law: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4daZsx1Z4
Review Questions:
Which of the following is a way a bill can become a law without the President's signature?
a. The President delegates the signing of a bill to the Vice President.
b. The President waits until the Congress is not in session.
c. The President fails to act on the bill within 10 days of receiving it while Congress is in session.
d. The President leaves the country.
Unlike the House, the Senate has a legislative process with
a. few limits on debate. c. no roll-call voting.
b. strict limits on debate. d. no voice voting.
The main way to end a filibuster is by
a. a two-thirds vote of the Senate. c. convening a conference committee.
b. invoking the Cloture Rule. d. voting the filibusterer out of office.
Answers: C / A / B