Legislative Process Flashcards
How is a bill presented in the House?
Presented into a hopper.
How is a bill presented in the senate?
Read aloud
What follows the initial presentation of a bill?
Members are given time to research a bill
Who allocates the bill to a committtee?
Congressional leadership decides whether to send the Bill forward or to combine it with other bills - an ‘omni-bus bill’.
What role can the President have in the creation of bills?
A bill can be something a president has called for, such as in the State of the Union, but it has to be presetned by at least one individual member of congress.
What are some weaknesses of the omnibus combination?
Opposing bills can be combined to dissuade voting against or for them. For example,support for Ukraine and Israel and border control being pushed together.
What is a negative of the research time?
Allows for lobbying from pressure groups.
What is a negative of the influence congressional leadership can have?
Allows it to be open to partisan bias.
What role do committee chairs have?
They have the ability pigeonhole the bill (where it is left unheard) or send it to a subcommittee or wether to debate it as a full committee
Who are committee members?
Policy specialists
What can happen during the committee stage?
Amendments can be proposed and voted on and lobbyists and the white house can attempt to influence committee members.
Analyse the committee stage
Committee chairs are selected by the majority party so open to partisan influence
Non-democratic for all power to keep a bill going to be put into one persons hands.
Specialists are good.
What follows the committee stage?
TImetabling
What is the role of the House Rules committee?
Control hte order of bills and procedures, including ho long to discuss, whether amendments are allowed etc.
Who decides the order of bills in the senate?
Majority and minority leader.
What is a discharge vote?
Allows members to red and bills are prioritised and released eg: bipartisan campaign reform act 2002.
Analyse the timetable stage.
As with other committees, the chair of the House Rules committee can influence the order of bills, and prioritise bills that they deem important, as well as using other means to minimise the chances of a bill being passed.
There is also no committee in the senate.
What is allowed to happen during the debate stage?
Members can make amendment but only if permitted by the rules committee / senate leaders
How many votes are needed to approve a bill?
simple majorities
What power do senators have during the debate?
Filibuster (subject to closure motions that need 60 votes)
EG: Strom Thurmond for 24 hours for 1957 Civil Rights bill.
What follows the debate stage?
Conference committees, where members of each chamber meet to reach a compromise on their bill. Not used as much anymore as party leaders work informally.
What can happen during conference committees if two chambers are controlled by different parties?
Party leaders tend to offer take it or leave it offers.
Analyse the conference committee
Encourages bipartisan bills but means they can get stuck if no compromise can be reached.
What is the final step of the legislative process
Signing of a bill by a President - can be done with a signing ceremony where the President denounces or supports the bill.
What can the president do
send it to veto.
