THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS SIX STAGES 1 2 3

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS

SIX STAGES 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Introduction Committee Stage Timetabling Floor debate and vote on passage Conference committee (optional) Presidential Action To be successful a bill must pass all of these stages within a two year sittingso the 115 th Congress sits from Jan 2017 -Dec 2018.

INTRODUCTION In the House a paper copy of the bill is just put in the “hopper” which is a tray on the clerk’s desk This is a formality – there is no debate and no vote In the Senate the title of the Bill is read out on the floor of the Senate Years Bills introduced Laws enacted % of bills into law 2003 -04 10, 669 504 4. 7 2005 -06 13, 079 483 3. 7 2007 -08 14, 042 460 3. 3 2009 -10 13, 675 385 2. 8 2011 -12 12, 299 284 2. 3 2013 -14 10, 637 296 2. 8 2015 -16 12, 063 328 2. 7 Very few bills make it into law – there is an inbuilt negative bias in the legislative process

COMMITTEE STAGE The most important stage Hundreds of bills are referred to each standing committee – they could not possibly deal with them all A significant number a pigeon-holed – this means put to one side with no action taken on them at all After the hearings the committee holds a “mark-up session” – making the changes it wishes before reporting out the bill (passing to the next stage) Those that have a great deal of support may be given hearings The committee stage takes place before the debates in the whole house – because these are the policy specialists and they have full power of amendment – anything can be added or taken away at this stage The report does 4 things 1) States the main aims of the bill 2) Reviews the amendments made by the committee 3) Estimates the cost of implementation 4) Recommends future action by the Chamber

TIMETABLING Although there are many committees – there is only one floor of each house – and all bills have to be debated by the whole of each house. The houses have separate ways of dealing with how to timetable the order that they will deal with bills The Senate uses “unanimous consent agreements” – this means the leaders of the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate agree together on the order After bills have been marked up and reported by the committees, they are sent to the houses – this means that a few months into a sitting, there will be a huge number of bills suddenly hitting the floor – and only so many will find time to be debated The House uses the House Rules Committee to prioritise bills and decide which will be held back. They can appeal if a bill is being held back too long

FLOOR DEBATE AND VOTE ON PASSAGE This is the first opportunity for the full chamber to debate the bill. Members get the chance to discuss the bills and propose amendments – then votes are taken on the bill and the amendments Filibusters In the Senate there is supposed to be unlimited debate – this means that Senators can stand speak for as long as possible so no vote can be taken and the bill cannot move forward If it is an uncontroversial bill, then the vote might just be shouting aye or no. In a recorded vote – • The House votes electronically • The Senate votes through a roll call, the clerk calls out the names alphabetically and they vote aye or no Filibustering has been used more and more in recent years – but they can be shut down with “clotures” 16 senators sign a petition and 60 vote to pass the cloture motion limiting debate In recent years both Democrats and Republicans have passed measures to make it easier to cloture Which is how Donald Trump managed to pass Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court Judge

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE This is what is supposed to happen when the two bills that have passed through the houses concurrently come out very different Conference committees have declined in use over the past 20 years This is because the Republicans decided to have a more leadership- driven approach where one chamber was just asked to endorse the legislation passed by the other chamber This is now referred to as “ping-ponging” The result of this is to greatly reduce the possible input from minority party members – and thereby further increase the partisanship seen in Congress

PRESIDENTIAL ACTION There are 3 or potentially 4 courses of action for the President Sign the bill into law They will sign any bill that they support, or for which they want to claim any credit. Leave the bill on their desk If the Prezy doesn’t want to out their name to it, they just leave it, and it becomes law in 10 Congressional working days. Regular Veto They have to send it back to Congress with reasons for the rejection. Congress may look again at the Bill and amend it – but this is unlikely as they would have known the Prezy’s problems with it before that point. They can override the veto with a 2/3 majority in both houses Pocket Vote If they are within 10 days of the end of the legislative session, the president can just leave the bill and this can’t be overridden by Congress