Erickson

Idea for legislation- From where? President, Interest Groups, members of Congress, constituents

1. New legislation is put in inbox or hopper

2. Legislation is given a number and is assigned to the appropriate standing committee/s (multiple referral) Examples: 1. A bill giving loans to organic farmers 2. A bill intended to rebuild roads, bridges, railroads and new high speed internet lines throughout the US. Bills in House known as H.R. __#___ and Senate S __#____ 111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf 111hr3590enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf

3. In full standing committee, members determine to act on bill or not act on it- Remember Committee Chair’s influence Pigeonholed- bill is killed due to lack of action- 90% If decided to work on it, bill is broken into parts and sent to sub-committees for hearings, debate, rewriting, mark up, testimonies, etc. bin/committee_list.cgi?site=congressmerge bin/committee_list.cgi?site=congressmerge

4.After hearing and rewriting their portions of bill, sub-committees send back to full standing committee, put entire bill back together and conduct more hearings, testimonies, debate, and rewriting. Standing Committee then votes- Report favorably

5. Bill is sent to House Rules Committee- “Traffic Cop”- to determine debate rules and which portions of bill will be up for amendments on house floor 6. Bill is then sent out of Rules Committee to Speaker of House to schedule legislation for floor action

7. Floor Action in House- Strict limits on debate. If passes the bill is sent to the Senate or other house if bill originated in Senate. 8. Entire Process is repeated in the Senate, however, there are some differences. In the Senate, there is no Rules Committee, goes directly to Senate Majority Leader for scheduling Floor Action in Senate- Very few limits on debate

8. Continued- Filibuster- Prevent or delay a vote on a bill by bottling up the floor through endless debate or discussion that may even be irrelevant to the bill. Requires 60 votes for cloture or else minority party can pretty much block anything Major increase in use in last 4 years the-filibuster-in-one-graph/2012/05/15/gIQAVHf0RU_blog.html the-filibuster-in-one-graph/2012/05/15/gIQAVHf0RU_blog.html

9. If passed in Senate, the next step is conference committee as it is unlikely the bill has passed identically in both houses. The bill may go through this several times 10. Once bill has passed identically in both chambers it is sent to President. He may sign, veto or pocket veto

10. If he signs it, it becomes a law. If he vetoes, Congress may override that veto with a 2/3 vote in both houses (VERY UNLIKELY)

Shortcuts Double tracking Deem and Pass Reconciliation 9z4k 9z4k Bypass committee entirely