John Haskell, Marian Currinder, and Sara A. Grove. Congress in Context Chapter 5

Transcription

1 John Haskell, Marian Currinder, and Sara A. Grove. Congress in Context Chapter 5 Daniel Prinz September 21, 2015 Congress's importance in the federal system stems from its lawmaking power passing a law establishes government policy by giving an agency the legal authority to do things normally, an agency will need two laws: authority + funding a bill (except revenue bills) may start either in the House or in the Senate, and it is also possible to have two similar or identical bills start at the same time in both chambers the key is to eventually have an identical bill pass through the House and the Senate and be signed by the President typical depiction of process (regular order): Introduction of a Bill (House) Committee Consideration House Rule Committee Floor Action (House) Floor Vote on Final Passage (House) Chambers Bridge Dierences Presidential Action Introduction of a Bill (Senate) Committee Consideration Floor Action (Senate) Floor Vote on Final Passage (Senate) 1

2 full committee consideration might be preceded by subcommittee consideration normally, the two chambers' versions dier reconciliation: conference committee or passing amendments back and forth almost all steps above are optional, the only absolutely required step is that House and Senate present to the President a bill that has passed both chambers in identical form (presentment clause of the Constitution, Article I, Section 7) to understand the legislative process in a relevant way: Rule of 218 and 60 (218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate) regular order is now circumvented so many times and in so many ways that unorthodox lawmaking might be the norm in each chamber, the majority party leadership (House: Speaker, Majority Leader, Majority Whip, Conference/Caucus Chairman; Senate: Majority Leader, Majority Whip, Conference Chairman) determines what goes to the oor and when House Senate each party identies a legislative agenda, typically put together by the House majority leader the majority leader deals with the committees there is also the possibility of post-committee adjustments another issue is whether the leadership has the required votes to pass a bill (whip's job is to nd out how members are likely to vote) party leaders', in particular the Speaker's power has become really strong after 1995, previously committees were much stronger majority leader has scheduling power but is much weaker than the Speaker in the House because of the de facto 60-vote requirement and the need to compromise with the minority all senators can weigh in need for either unanimous acceptance or 60 votes committees have the experts on issues and committee and subcommittee consideration of most bills is still the norm however, post-committee modication and legislative packing are common 2

3 Key stages in the legislative process: the House Introducing a bill only members may introduce a bill in Congress if a bill does not pass into law in a Congress, it needs to be reintroduced in the next Congress to receive consideration many dierent reasons in introducing bills the idea for a bill can come from interest groups, constituents, members, their sta, or executive agencies in the government Referring a bill to a committee committee referral is based on the established jurisdictions of the committees the nonpartisan parlamentarian analyzes the bill and makes the appropriate referral when legislation that does not t into a single existing committee's jurisdiction, process can become political split referral: House leadership may split the bill between committees committees can be bypassed by leadership postcommittee adjustments possible The Rules Committee on most consequential matters, the leadership secures a special rule from the Rules Committee to allow bills to be taken up in the order they prefer the Rules Committee draws up the guidelines for the consideration of a bill, for example, they determine to what extent amendments can be introduced self-executing provisions to amend bills Suspension of the Rules the leadership most often bypasses the rules committee and moves bills to the oor where debate is limited and nal passage requires a two-thirds majority previously primarily used for noncontroversial matters but is now increasingly used for important bills as well Floor Consideration turn the house into Committee of the Whole using a special rule: only 100 members present required for quorum 3

4 limit debate on the amendment process general debate on the bill amendment process recorded vote the Committee of the Whole reports the bill back to full House which usually votes en bloc on the package of passed amendments vote on the amended bill minority may use a motion to recommit Key stages in the legislative process: the Senate Bill Introduction and Committee Referral similar as in the House but no multiple referrals, so the majority leader has less power, the nonpartisan parlamentarian decides committees may divide laws between themselves committees can be bypassed by leadership postcommittee adjustments possible Floor Consideration every member has an equal right to recognition and can hold the oor for as long as they want (libuster) supermajority of 60 is required or every senator must agree to allow a vote the leadership has less power in setting the agenda than in the House majority needs to compromise with the minority members can libuster cloture can be invoked with 60 votes Reconciling the Dierences presentment clause of the Constitution requires that legislation sent to the President be passed on identical form in each chamber the versions emerging from the two chambers are dierent are usually signicantly dierent sometimes the two chambers do not make a deal or take years to make a deal three ways to make a deal: 4

5 one chamber picks up a bill passed by the other and passes it in unaltered form passing amendments between the chambers conference committee conference committee one chamber requests a committee the Speaker appoints the House conferees: has exibility in appointments, but at least a majority of members must support the House version of the bill and there must be minority party representation, typically appoints members who worked on the billl in the Senate the committee chair(s) who worked on the bill and the majority leader choose the majority delegation and the ranking committee member(s) and the minority leader choose the minority delegation in the Senate, it is dicult to agree to go to conference, so amendments are used more often conference committees typically meet behind closed doors amendments between the chambers sometimes it is not possible or not practical to form a conference committee dierences can be resolved by sending a bill back and forth between the chambers majority leadership might prefer this method because it gives them more control The White House if the President signs a bill, it becomes law if the President doesn't act for 10 days on a bill, it becomes law President can veto, two-thirds majority needed for overriding a veto (only seven presidential vetoes overridden in the last 20 years) pocket veto: if the president refuses to sign in the last 10 days of a Congress, Congress cannot override his veto typically Congress makes compromises on laws with the President that he will sign sometimes Congress passes laws that are vetoed to demonstrate what they could pass if a President from the other party were elected 5

6 Conclusion multiple veto points legislative process on paper is not a requirement, the only requirement for a bill to become law is that it passes both chambers in identical forms party leadership determines the legislative agenda on the House and Senate oor, conditioning the early stages (development of bills and committee consideration) of the legislative process House is run by a simple majority rule which may mean little or no consultation on some of the matters with the minority party Senate comes to a vote only by unanimous consent or by a 60-vote supermajority threshold; as a result compromise between the parties is almost always required on signicant legislation in the House, the process may be streamlined and ecient, this is almost never the case in the Senate the concept of unorthodox lawmaking is critically important the routine business of Congress, such as passing annual agency budgets, is increasingly impossible to do without resorting to legislative legerdemain - packaging multiple bills together and skipping important stages of the process 6