Function of Congress: Legislation Flashcards
What can this be considered to be among the three main functions of congress?
The most important
What does legislating involve?
It involves creating, scrutinising, amending, delaying and passing legislation
What six steps can the legislative process be split into?
Introduction
Committee stage
Timetabling
Floor debate and vote on passage
Conference committee (optional). This can be avoided if both houses pass an identical bill or if there are minor differences that can be resolved informally
Presidential action
Describe the introduction phase
Pure formality
No debate or vote
In the House, it involves placing a copy of the bill in a tray in the clerk’s desk
In the Senate, it involves reading out the bill on the Senate floor
Bills are then numbered, printed, circulated and sent to the appropriate standing committee
Huge volume of legislation is introduced. In a typical congress, anything between 10,000-14,000 bills will be introduced
Only around 2-4% of bills make it into law. This is due to the difficult legislative process
The 116th congress (2019-21) was incredibly unproductive, with just 1% of the bills introduced becoming law (16,231 bills introduced and 205 laws enacted)
Describe the committee stage
Most important stage
More bills fail here than at any other stage
Hundreds of bills are referred to each of the standing committees in both houses in every congress, which is far more than they can handle. A significant number of bills are put to one side with no vote or debate being taken. It is those with a good deal of support from members of congress, the administration or interest groups that are given hearings (an opportunity to state their case). These hearings may either be from the full committee or the relevant sub-committee
The committee stage is early in the legislative process, coming before debate in the chamber, meaning the full house and senate have not yet debated the bill
Standing committee members are regarded as specialists in their particular policy areas and so have full power of amendment, meaning anything can be added to or taken away from the bill at this stage. Professor Vile (1999) stated that ‘it is difficult to overestimate the importance of standing committees, for they are the seive through which all legislation is poured, and what comes out, and how it comes out, is largely in their hands
Once hearings are complete, the committee holds a mark up session – making the changes it wishes – before ‘reporting out’ the bill – effectively sending it onto its next stage. The report written by the committee does 4 things…
States the main aims of the bill
Reviews the amendments that have been made
Estimates the cost of implementation
Recommends future action to be taken by the full chamber
Describe the timetabling stage
By the time congress has been in session for a few months, a huge number of bills will be waiting to come to the chamber floor. While there are dozens of committee and subcommittee rooms, there is only one chamber floor in each house. A legislative traffic jam develops. Each house has its own procedure for dealing with this potential problem
The Senate deals with it through something called unanimous consent agreements. This is an agreement made without objection to waive the chamber’s normal rules. In effect, this will be an agreement between the senate majority and minority leaders on the order in which bills will be debated
The House deals with it through the House Rules Committee. This one of the standing committees in the House, but performs a different function from the others. It is responsible for prioritising the bills coming from the committee stage.
Because there is usually a huge queue, the House Rules Committee also has a big role to play; it gives the rules of debate for a bill, for example, by stating whether any amendments can be made to the bill at this stage. There are three basic types of rule…
Open rules that permit unlimited amendments, provided they are relevant to the bill
Modified rules that limit the total number of amendments, what sections of the bill can be amended, and who can propose amendments
Closed rules that forbid any amendments
The Rules Committee is unusual in that its membership is much smaller and more skewed to the majority party than other standing committees. In 2019, the House Rules Committee had just 13 members, 9 Ds and just 4 Rs
The Chair of the House Rules Committee is considered one of the most influential posts in congress. They work very closely with the Speaker in determining what is debated on the floor and how it is debated
The choices that the Rules Committee make have important consequences. For instance, it decides the number of bills debated under closed rules, which eliminates the ability to amend the bill on the floor, except under unanimous consent – this has been increasing in recent years. In the 115th congress (2017-9), 56% of bills were debated under closed rules, the highest percentage in history. By preventing legislation from being improved by congress, it gives the minority party less ability to shape government bills
Its prioritising role makes the House Rules Committee a kind of gatekeeper
If the committee fails to give a rule to a popular bill, house members may resort to the discharge process. A discharge petition must be signed by an absolute majority of house members. Once this is done, the bill is discharged from the Rules Committee and comes automatically to the House floor for debate. This was used successfully on the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Describe the floor debate and vote on passage stage
This is the opportunity for the full chambers to debate the bill
In the House, most bills are considered first in the Committee of the Whole House, which allows for as many members to take part in the debate as possible
In both houses, further amendments can usually be made
Votes are taken on amendments and the whole bill at the end of the debate. Simple majorities required
Votes can either be through voice or recorded votes. In voice votes, members are merely required to call ‘aye’ or ‘no’, this is usually done for non controversial issues. In a record vote, each member’s vote is recorded
In the Senate, there is the possibility of a filibuster taking place. This is a device whereby one or more senators can delay action on a bill or any other matter by debating it at length or by other obstructive actions. Stamina is more important than relevance when constructing a filibuster. Senators have been known to read extracts from the constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bible and even the telephone directory. In 1957, Strom Thurmand conducted a filibuster against a civil rights bill that lasted over 24 hours
A filibuster can be ended by a procedure called ‘closure’. To be successful, it must be signed by at least 16 senators and then voted for by 3/5 of the entire senate
Until the 1970s, filibusters and closure motions were very rare. For instance, the 91st congress (1969-70) had only 7 closure motions presented, whereas the 110th congress (2007-8) had 139
As a result of the huge increase in filibusters, in 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal to try and limit their use, but it appeared unlikely to have much effect
Later in 2013, Ds passed the ‘nuclear option’ to require only a simple majority vote to end filibusters for executive and judicial branch nominations (excluding SC nominations)
When the Rs took control of the Senate they not only kept these reforms but extended them, extending the nuclear option to apply to SC appointments too, although this was just so that they could appoint Neil Gorsuch to the SC
After the debate and approval of any amendment, each chamber votes to either pass or defeat the bill
The House and Senate versions of the bill are likely to be different. If the differences are minor, the two houses might informally agree through the leadership on how to adjust the bills to make them identical. However, if the differences are significant, a conference committee may be set up to reconcile the differences…
Describe the conference committee stage
The constitution is silent on the issue of how to resolve differing bills between the chambers
The conference committee produces an agreed report after meeting with delegates from both chambers, and this agreed report will be sent back to the houses and votes upon
Conference committee use has declined in recent years. In the 104th congress (1995-7), 37 conference reports were adopted, but by the 115th congress (2015-7), this had dropped to just 7. The decline began soon after the Rs took control of the house in 1994, and is associated with the then House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, attempting to restore power to the party leadership and away from the committee. Instead, members from one chamber are asked to adopt the other chamber’s bill
Conferences committees still do sometimes occur on big ticket legislation, with the last example being the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This process was relatively short considering the Rs were in control of both houses, with House Speaker Paul Ryan working closely with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
What four options do presidents have at their disposal when they receive legislation?
- Signing the bill into law
- Leaving the bill on their desk
- Regular veto
- Pocket veto (they can only do this one under circumstances)
What does signing the bill into law involve?
They will do this to bills they fully support and wish to claim some credit for. An example of this could be Obama and the ACA in 2010
A bill signing ceremony is arranged, usually at the WH, where a number of key house and senate members who supported the bill through its passage are present for a photo opportunity with the president
The president may also decide to sign bills out of political expediency, such as Bush signing the 2002 BCRA. These signings are done with far less publicity
What does leaving the bill on their desk involve?
They do this for bills on which they have no position at all, or would like to veto but they know that the veto would be overridden
These bills become law without the president’s signature within 10 working days, as long as congress remains in session
What does a regular veto involve?
Used for bills they strongly oppose
Presidents sometimes use the threat of it as a bargaining tool with congress. The president hopes that this threat will be enought to convince to make the amendments they desire
The president must veto within 10 congressional working days of receiving the bill, sending it back to the house of origin with a letter explaining the objections
The president must veto the whole bill, not just parts of it
What three options does congress have when faced with a regular veto?
It can write the wrongs the president outlines in their letter of objection and return the bill for signature. This is unlikely, as members of congress will have been well aware of presidential objections during the passage of the bill
It can override the veto. This requires a 2/3 majority in both houses – a demanding requirement that is rarely achieved
It can realise that it lacks the votes required to override and accept that the president has won. This is by far the most likely option
Give a statistics to show how regular vetoes are almost always successful
Between 1789-2021, only 112 out of 1,518 regular vetoes were overridden, giving the president a 93% success rate
Why are regular vetoes usually successful?
The president only needs 34 senators to support him to win. The president will study the final passage of votes on bills. If they have passed with huge majorities in both houses, the president will rarely veto. If the majorities were small, the president can veto with confidence, knowing that they will almost definitely prevail
