Chapter 7----Congress at Work - New Bremen High School



Chapter 7----Congress at Work

How a Bill Becomes a Law

A. Types of Bills & Resolutions

1. Members of Congress introduce the following types of bills:

a. Private Bills—deal with individual people or places.

1. Often involve people’s claims against the government or their immigration problems

2. Today, only a small # of bills introduced in Congress

b. Public Bills—deal with general matters & apply to the entire nation

1. Ex: raising & lowering taxes, national health insurance, gun control, civil rights, or abortion

2. Debated for months before they become law

3. 30% of all bills passed

2. Congress may also pass the following types of resolutions:

a. Simple Resolution—covers matters affecting only one house of Congress & is passed by that house alone

1. It is not a law & does not need to be signed by the president.

b. Joint Resolution—passed by both houses, requires the president’s signature, & has the force of law

1. May correct an error in an earlier law or appropriate money for a special purpose

2. May be used to propose a constitutional amendment, but this does not require the president’s signature.

c. Concurrent Resolution—Cover matters requiring the action of both the House & Senate but on which a law is not needed & does not need the president’s signature.

1. Ex: May set the date for the adjournment of Congress

3. Earmarks—Way that a member of Congress can specify that some part of a funding bill will go toward a certain purpose. (Projects in their state or district)

4. Rider—is a provision on a subject other than the one covered in the bill.

a. Lawmakers attach riders to bills that are likely to pass.

5. Why so few Bills become law?:----< 10% of bills introduced become law—Why?

a. Long & complicated process—Bill can be delayed, killed, or changed at any time.

b. Lawmakers must compromise & bargain with lawmakers & interest groups to get their support for a bill.

1. Bills that powerful interest groups oppose are not likely to pass

c. Lawmakers introduce bills that have no chance of passing

1. Show support for a policy

2. attract the attention of news media

3. satisfy an important group of voters

B. Introducing a Bill

1. How Bills are Introduced?

a. Ideas can come from anyone (citizen, interest group, president, etc)

b. Only members of Congress can introduce a bill & then the bill is given a title and number, printed, & distributed to lawmakers. (1st Reading of the Bill)

2. Committee Action

a. Bill is sent to the committee that deals with the subject matter of the bill

b. Committee Chairperson may send bill to a subcommittee or

c. Committee may ignore it & let bill dies (Pigeonholing) or

d. Committee can kill it by majority vote or

e. Committee can recommend the bill be adopted as introduced, make changes, or completely rewrite the bill before sending it back to the House or Senate for further action

3. Committee Hearings

a. Hearings—sessions at which a committee listens to testimony from people interested in the bill.

1. Opportunity for Congress to get information on a bill

2. Help focus public attention on a problem

3. Best point for citizens to send letters, telegrams, e-mails supporting or opposing the bill

4. Markup Session---decide what changes to make on the bill.

a. Majority vote is required for all changes.

5. Reporting a Bill

a. Committee vote to kill the bill or Report it

b. Report it----Send it to the House or Senate for action

1. Committee sends a report explaining the committee’s actions, describes the bill, lists the major changes, & gives opinions on the bill.

C. Floor Action

1. Debating & Amending Bills

a. 2nd Reading of the Bill—Section by Section is read.

b. After each section is read, amendments may be offered

c. Amendments are only added to a if a majority of the members present approves them.

2. Voting on Bills

a. A quorum of the members must be present for a vote (majority)

b. 3rd Reading of the Bill

c. Vote on the Bill

1. Passage of the bill requires a majority vote of all the members present

**** 3 ways to vote on a bill in the House & Senate***

1. Voice Vote—Member together call out “aye” or “No”

2. Standing Vote---Those in favor & then those against stand & are counted

3. Roll-Call Vote—Names are called & you respond with “aye” or “No”

4. House also may vote electronically (Recorded Vote)

D. Final Steps in Passing Bills

A Bill must pass both Houses of Congress in identical form to become a Law. A bill passed in the House often differs at first from a Senate’s bill on the Same subject.

1. Conference Committee Action

a. Committee made up of Senators & Representatives must work out difference between the 2 versions

b. A majority of the conferees draft a compromise bill (Conference Report)

c. Conference Report is accepted, it is sent to each house of Congress for final action.

a. Once passed it is sent to the President

2. Presidential Action on Bills

a. Sign the bill---it becomes law.

b. Keep the bill for 10 days without signing it.

1. Congress in session—Bill becomes law without the President’s signature

c. Veto a bill---Returns it to the House of Congress in which it started with an explanation to why he/she vetoed it

d. Pocket Veto---Refuses to act on a bill passed during the last 10 days –killing the bill

3. Congressional Override of a Veto:

1. Congress can override a president’s veto with a 2/3rds vote in both houses and then becomes law

**Line Item Veto—President could Reject specific parts of a bill—Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional in 1998 (Clinton v. City of New York 1998)

4. Registering Laws

a. registered with the National Archives & Records Service

1. labeled public or private law & assigned a number that identifies the Congress that passed it & the number of the law for that term

2. added to United states Code of Federal Laws

3. THOMAS---On line source about legislation being considered.

Taxing & Spending Bills

A. Making Decisions About Taxes

Taxes—Money paid by people & businesses to support the government

a. #1 way in which the government gets money

1. House Power Over Revenue Bills

a. All Revenue Bills must start in the House of Representatives

b. House Ways and Means Committee---

1. decides whether to go along with presidential requests for tax cuts or increases

2. Makes the rules that determine who will pay how much tax

c. Closed Rule—stopped members from offering any amendments to a bill from the floor. Only the House Ways & Means Committee Could have a say.

1. 1973—House allowed members to amend tax bills from the floor.

a. Critics—Tax bills became a collection of amendments written to please special interests.

2. Senate Role in Tax Laws

a. Constitution allows the Senate to change tax bills (Senate Finance Committee)—Chairperson—Very powerful

B. Appropriating Money

1. 2 Steps Congress appropriates money:

a. Authorization Bill---Sets up a federal program & specifies how much money may be spent on the program

1. Ex: It may limit spending for inner city recreation & place the program in the hands of HUD

b. Appropriations Bill-- HUD requests that Congress provide the money that was authorized for the program

2. Appropriations Committees

a. Every Year heads of departments & agencies & program directors testify before the House & Senate appropriations subcommittees about their budget

b. Each year they must return to Congress to request the money they need for the upcoming year

3. Uncontrollable Expenditures

***70% of the money that the federal government spends each year is already committed to certain uses.—Appropriations committees do not control these funds

a. Entitlements—Social programs that entitle individuals to a certain program or monetary benefit

1. Ex: Social security

Influencing Congress

A. Influences on Lawmakers

1. Their personalities

2. The issue themselves

a. may pay close attention to the desires of people back home on the issue

b. Little effect back home—More likely to follow his own beliefs or the advice & opinions of other lawmakers

3. Congressional staff members—control the information on which lawmakers base their decisions

a. set the agenda for individual lawmakers & for congressional committees that may favor a certain point of view

B. The Influence of Voters

1. How lawmakers keep track of their constituents’ opinions:

a. Make frequent trips home to learn about local concerns

b. Have staff members screen messages from home to learn what concerns voters

c. Send questionnaires to their constituents

d. Hire professional pollsters to conduct opinion surveys

e. Pay close attention to campaign workers & contributors

C. The Influence of Parties

1. Political party membership—most important influence on a lawmaker’s voting behavior

a. Economy—party members tend to vote the same way

b. Foreign Policy—much weaker because the two parties do not have fixed positions on international questions

c. Public policy—Share the same general beliefs.

1. Democrats—favor social-welfare programs

2. Republicans---favor lower taxes & less government intervention in the economy

d. rely on other lawmakers in their party for advice

D. Other Influences on Congress

1. The president-- tries to influence Congress to pass laws that he & his party support

a. The president can appear on television to try to influence public opinion & put pressure on Congress

b. President may give or withhold favors & support in return for lawmakers’ cooperation

2. Interest Groups

a. Lobbyists (representatives)—try to persuade lawmakers to support certain policies (lobbying)

1. represent business organizations, labor unions, education groups, minority groups, & environmental organizations

2. Lobbyists try to influence lawmakers by:

a. providing information about policies they support or oppose.

b. Visiting lawmakers to ask for support

c. Encouraging citizens to write to members of Congress on the issues they support or oppose

3. Focus much of their attention on committees

3. Political Action Committees (PACs)—Political fund-raising organizations established by corporations, labor unions, & other special interest groups.

a. Funds support lawmakers who favor a PAC’s positions on issues

Helping Constituents

A. Handling Problems

1. Casework—Helping constituents with problems.

a. Caseworkers handle the problems of the constituents, but when they cannot the lawmaker steps in.

2. Purposes of Casework:

a. Help lawmakers get reelected

b. A way in which Congress oversees the Executive Branch

c. Provides a way for the average citizen to deal with the huge national government

B. Helping the District or State

1. Pork-Barrel Legislation—laws passed by Congress that appropriate money for local federal projects

a. Ex: post offices, dams, federally funded highways, veterans hospitals, etc

b. Logrolling—agreement by two or more lawmakers to support each other’s bills

3. Winning grants & contracts

a. Pressure agency officials to give a favorable hearing to their state’s request

b. Assign staffers to act as specialists in contracts 7 grants—find out how they can qualify for federal money 7 help them to apply

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