How a bill becomes a law? American Gov’t MEMORIES!!!!

Turning your idea into a law… During any session of congress there may be as many as 10,000 “ideas” introduced – less than 10% of these ever become a law. Bill - A proposed law presented to the House OR Senate for consideration One Exception: $$ Legislations ALWAYS starts in the House of Representatives…Art. 1, Sec. 7, Cl. 1

Source of Bills Most start in the Executive Branch Special Interest Groups –Business –Labor –Agriculture Private Citizens – ME & YOU Congressional Standing Committees

Types of Bills Public Bills – measures that apply to the Nation as a whole Example: Tax Laws or Amendments to the Constitution, etc. Private Bills – Apply to certain people or places Example: Sheep rancher in Idaho or dealing with the NFL veterans RIDER: Attached unrelated matter

Checkpoint What is a BILL? What is the only body that can bring up a bill regarding money? Where are some of the places that a bill can come from?

Intro in the House (read & numbered) Standing Committee Congressional Vote Floor Debate & Vote Standing Committee VETO! President Floor Debate & Vote Intro in the Senate Subcommittee LAW Conference Committee 2/3s Public Hearings if needed

Committee Actions 1)Report the bill favorably  “Do-Pass” – THEY LIKED IT 2)Refuse to report the bill  “Pigeonhole” – LET IT DIE 3)Report the bill in amended form  “Amended” – CHANGED IT A LITTLE 4)Report a committee bill  “New Stuff” – MADE THEIR OWN 5) Report the bill with unfavorable recommendation  “No-Pass” – HATED IT

House Actions Debate – discuss the issues (findings that the Committees and Subcommittees came up with) Committee of the Whole – Speeds up the process; the entire House acts as a committee rather than a legislative body Quorum – needed to discuss bills, it means a “majority” of the members must be there

House Actions After the debate then they: Vote Types of voting 1)Voice Vote – most common 2)Standing Vote – self-explanatory 3)Teller Vote – Selected members count their party’s vote 4)Roll-Call Vote – this is now done with computers

Final Step 1.The Bill is read for a 3 rd and final time 2.One last vote / opportunity for debate 3.Signed by Speaker 4.Sent to Senate What does “pigeonhole” mean?

The Next Step… The Bill will then go to the Senate…here the process is very similar to the path of a bill in the House.

The main difference in the Senate Debate –House: Formal –Senate: Informal (Free Debate) Filibuster –Is a part of the debating process –“Talking a bill to death” –Used by “minority” senators to delay or prevent a bill from going further –Monopolizes the Floor Debate Time

More on Filibusters Huey Long – 15 hours – read the phone book and recipes Glen Taylor – 8 hours – talked about his kids, Wall Street, baptism, and fishing THE RECORD – Strom Thurmond – –24 hours, 18 minutes The filibuster works, however, they do observe certain rules strictly…like standing, not sitting or leaning

Conference Committee Rarely can a bill make it thru all of these steps with out some problem… This is where a Conference Committee comes in handy… –Members from both chambers come together (temporarily) to make any changes that BOTH can agree upon. –Then they re-vote (almost always passes) –Sent to the President for acceptance or rejection COMPROMISE

Presidential Actions 1) Sign into Law 2) Veto – Means “I forbid” in Latin –Can be overridden with 2/3s vote of Congress 3) Do nothing – then it becomes a law 4) Pocket Veto – If Congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting the bill, the President can do nothing, the bill dies.