Chapter 8: Getting the Words and the Money: Policy Formulation and Policy Adoptions. Mefleh Althamer

The High Visibility Stages of the Policy Process During policy formulation and adoption, three major processes occur. 1- The policy is expressed in written language, taking the form of a statute, an administrative rule, or court decision. 2- Adopt appropriate funding to support it. 3- A policy as formulated in words must be adopted.

Policy Formulation and Adoption Legislatures A Conservative Process: the legislative process was designed to be conservative. In fact, deliberately constructed to make the passing of laws difficult. Because the Founding Fathers feared governments that could change policies speedily; they created a slow and cumbersome system. A bill must cross many barriers to be enacted into law. As a result of this complicated system, the large majority of bills never become laws at all.

Legislative Proposals and Where They Come From The policy ideas developed and discussed in the first two stages of the policy process usually become legislative proposals before they become bills, then statutes, and finally official policy. Who develop proposals: Legislators Chief executives Interest groups

How Bills are Drafted The second stage in policy formulation is the transformation of a legislative proposal into a bill, or proposed law. Bills must be expressed in a specific format and expressed in legal discourse. Major components of a correctly drafted bill: Title Text that enacts the legislation Definitions of key terms Effective date List of portions of existing legal code potentially affected

How Bills Move Through a Legislature The formal organization consists of the official structure and power relationship. Every bill must be sponsored by a member of the house of the legislature in which it is to be introduced. The bill moves to committee (Reference committee), and rules committee schedules it for a debate on the floor and then a vote of the whole house. Companion bill moves through the other house, and when the the conference committee succeeds, the bill returns to each house for a vote. In order to become law, it will take normally two year period.

The Politics of Getting a Policy Adopted The informal process of policy adoption involves negotiating with a succession of policy actors in order to get them to vote to adopt a bill, and those negotiations usually relate to the way the policy is formulated.

Rule Making Why Rules Are Needed. Fill gaps in the law define key terms in a law define their own internal procedures How Rules Are Written. Gathering information Providing for public participation Submitting their proposed rules to a designated or for approval.

Policy Formation and Adoption in the Courts Judges write their interpretations in the form of opinions which are collected and published in one type of law book. Establishing precedents for future legal interpretations by other lawyers and judges. Writing opinions constitute case law, and become part of the law just as legislation is. Judges can use their power of judicial review to invalidate the laws passed.

Education Policy Making by Judges In State Courts. State court judges have played an important role in education policy. Tyack (1986) found that 90% of nineteenth-century state courts’ decisions about education dealt with school finance and governance. In Federal Courts. Only seven education cases reached the U.S. Supreme Court during the entire nineteenth century (Tyack 1986), but after World War I, federal judges began to play an important role in education policy.

To Influence Legislatures and Agencies Government Relations Working through professional organizations Lobbying