YOUR TASK:

• What are these different types

of bills and resolutions?
• What are the
similarities/differences
between them?
• Write your own definition for
each type of bill/resolution.
• Compare it with your partner’s
– can you both agree on a
definition?
Enquiry Question: How is legislation passed?
 Learning Outcomes
• To describe the legislative process
• To explain the complexities of the legislative process
and the factors that can affect it, including
partisanship and bipartisanship
• To evaluate the extent to which the filibuster is still a
useful legislative tool
 Watch the video: School House Rock – I’m Just A Bill

Watch the video: Crash Course – How a Bill Becomes Law

 Legislative Process
YOUR TASK:
Read the article “Legislative Process”
Create a ‘Draw My Life’ style summary page.
Ensure that your summary answers the following questions:
• How does a bill become law?
• How do members of Congress develop and draft
legislation?
• How does the congressional budget process work?
• Who can introduce legislation? What are the various
different stages at which bills face votes as they move
through Congress?
• What are the two steps of the budget process? Which
committee has the power to initiate funding bills?
 7 Stages of the
Legislative Process
 First Reading
• must pass both houses during a
congress
(2 years)
• Same in both houses, only a
formality
• No debate
• No vote
• Speaker assigns legislature to
appropriate committee
 Committee Stage
• Committee stage-broken into sub-committees
• Many bills don’t get out-pigeonholed
• Bills with lots of support get heard-from within
house, congress, interest groups etc,
• Committee members are specialists
• Witnesses called and questioned
• Power of amendment-can pass, amend or reject
• Reported out i.e. Goes to floor if vote in favour
• Therefore bill can be thrown out at this stage. Slow
process because of witness.
 Timetabling
• Find time for consideration whole
chamber
• House rules committee-2:1 in
favour of majority
• Can set time limits & rules for level
of debate
• Therefore control what pases v
powerful
 Second Reading
• Considered by whole chamber
• Further amendments made
• In senate-tradition- everyone who
wants to speak can-therefore
chance of filibuster
• 60 senators must vote for cloture-
motion to stop debate allowing
determined minorities to end a bill
• Simple majority pass
• If passed said to be congressed.
 Third Reading
• Final debate.
• If big amendments made after 2nd
reading-substantial debate
• If minor amendments and large
vote in favour, 3rd reading brief-
further vote taken
 Conference Committee
• (optional)
• If big difference between bill
agreed by house & senate due to
amendments a conference
committee called-reps from both
chambers represented.
• If bill not approved by end of
congressional term, 2 years, must
start all over again.
 Presidential Action
• 4 options
• 10 days to act
• Signed into law
• Can veto bill
• However veto can be overridden by
2/3 majority
• Pocket veto, takes no action at end of
congress, bill dies-cannot be
overturned
• Leave bill on desk-become law after
10 working days
 Learning Outcomes
• To describe the legislative process
• To explain the complexities of the legislative process
and the factors that can affect it, including
partisanship and bipartisanship
• To evaluate the extent to which the filibuster is still a
useful legislative tool
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Weak Parties & Weak Leaders
• Due to the separation of powers and federalism,
parties tend to be weak, with many factions.
• Party leaders also have limited power over their own
party, with ineffective patronage and whipping.
• As a result, parties do not act as a single unit in
passing legislation, making it difficult to pass laws.
• The rise in partisanship can help the passage of
legislation through Congress, but this is of little use if
the presidency is controlled by a different party or the
House and Senate have split control (as in 2010–14).
• Here partisanship can cause high levels of gridlock,
where president, House and Senate fail to agree and
legislation cannot be passed.
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Increased partisanship
• The Republican Party was criticised for excessive
partisanship during the Obama presidency, with some
politicians seeming to oppose any policy supported by
Obama.
• For example, the then-House Budget Committee Chair Tom
Price refused to begin committee consideration of Obama’s
final $4-trillion-budget proposal.
• Voting between parties has become more divergent than at
any other period since the Second World War.
• In addition, the political middle has disappeared, with
declines in moderate conservatives and Blue Dog
Democrats, who represent a crossover between the two
parties.
http://www.mamartino.com/projects/rise_of_partisanship/
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
We don’t like change
• There is certain degree of
negativity that is part of the
obstructionist's platform.
• Republicans, and some
moderates of both parties, are
not progressive.
• They want things to remain
the same, even when it
becomes out-dated.
• They look at new ideas with a
preconceived idea that it will
fail.
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Controversial Bill? Forget it!
• This means that controversial bills
will require some negotiations to
get passed.
• Controversial legislation typically
won't pass unless it's sponsored by
the majority party, and even then
weak links can be found to vote
against the bill.
• The weak party discipline in the
congressional system often means
members of the party have little to
gain from voting along party lines,
and would rather follow their own
personal opinions or those of their
constituents.
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Political Action-less Committees
• The legislative process bestows power “A Committee is a
on the committee system, allowing a group of people
committee to simply “table” a bill.
• Tabling a bill/piece of legislation means
who individually
that it is set aside for later can do nothing, but
consideration. as a group decide
• Whether or not it is "dead" depends that nothing can be
upon how many people in the done.”
legislature want it considered later,
how much other legislation is under – Fred Allen
consideration - and how much American
pressure they can bring to bear on the Comedian, 1894-
committee chair(s) to bring the tabled
item up for active consideration. 1956
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Presidential Veto
• The presidential veto allows
the president to return
legislation to Congress
unsigned.
• Congress can only override
this veto with a 2/3 majority
in both houses of Congress –
something that is difficult to
achieve, especially if the bill
is considered to be partisan
or controversial.
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Filibuster
• The filibuster allows
the minority in the “Over my dead
Senate to delay or body….blah blah
defeat (potentially)
any piece legislation.
blah…Never in a
• Sometimes the million
threat of a filibuster years…blah blah
can force a small blah…..”
majority to negotiate
further with the
minority.
 Why is the legislative processYeardifficult?
S H
1981-1983 R D
Majority Rules1983-1985 R D
1985-1987 R D
• If a party has a majority in both 1987-1989 D D
houses of Congress, then in 1989-1991 D D
theory they will be able to pass 1991-1993 D D
most of their party platform 1993–1995 D D
legislation (providing there is 1995-1997 R R
nothing too controversial). 1997-1999 R R
• How easy it is to pass 1999-2001 R R
legislation is (normally) 2001-2003 D/R R
proportionate to the size of the 2003–2005 R R
majority. 2005–2007 R R
2007-2009 D D
• But what about divided
2009–2011 D D
government?
2011-2013 D R
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
“If I lead will you follow?”
• In both chambers, party leaders involve themselves in the
legislative process on major legislation earlier and more
deeply, using special procedures to aid the passage of
legislation.
• In the House, special rules from the Rules Committee have
become powerful tools for controlling floor consideration of
bills and sometimes for shaping the outcomes of votes.
• Often party leaders from each chamber negotiate among
themselves instead of creating conference committees. Party
leaders also use omnibus legislation that addresses numerous
and perhaps unrelated subjects, issues, and programs to
create winning coalitions.
NB: In the Senate, leaders have less leverage and individual senators have retained great
opportunities for influence. As a result, it is often more difficult to pass legislation in the
Senate.
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
What the President wants…the President gets.
• Presidents are partners with Congress in the
legislative process, but all presidents are also
Congress' adversaries in the struggle to control
legislative outcomes. Presidents have their own
legislative agenda, based in part on their party's
platform and their electoral coalition. The
president's task is to persuade Congress that his
agenda should also be Congress' agenda.
• Presidential success rates for influencing
congressional votes vary widely among presidents
and within a president's tenure in office.
Presidents are usually most successful early in
their tenures and when their party has a majority
in one or both houses of Congress. Regardless, in
almost any year, the president will lose on many
issues.
 Why is the legislative process difficult?
Key Points
• 3% of bills are vetoed by presidents
• 4% of vetoes overridden-often for
political reasons-in divided
government mostly (except carter)
• Very few bills put forward become
law- 4-5% Why?
• Weak party discipline-votes not
predictable
• Committees can kill off
/fundamentally change a bill
• Cloture motion requirement in senate
means minorities can kill bills-
• Senate very powerful.
Intention of FF- supposed to be difficult-
pros & cons
CLOTURE MOTION
(Closure/guillotine)
• The only procedure by
which the Senate can vote
to place a time limit on
consideration of a bill or
other matter, and thereby
overcome a filibuster.
• Under the cloture rule the
Senate may limit
consideration of a pending
matter to 30 additional
hours, but only by vote of
three-fifths of the full
Senate, normally 60 votes.
 Quote of the Day
‘The house sits, not for serious discussion, but to
sanction the conclusions of its committees as
rapidly as possible. It legislates in its committee
rooms, not by the determination of majorities, but
by the specially commissioned minorities (the
committees), so that it is not far from the truth to
say that congress in session is congress on public
exhibition, whilst congress in its committee rooms
is congress at work’.

Woodrow Wilson 1885 future president WWI.

Strengths of legislative process
• Checks and balances prevent
tyranny, forcing compromise
between different interests. In this
sense the United States creates a
pluralist democracy in which power
is shared.
• Quality policy comes from detailed
consideration of bills and filters to
remove undesirable aspects. This
limits the danger of a bill being
poorly thought-through.
• Individual and state rights are
protected, as Senators can insert
amendments or filibuster on the
basis of their equal state power and
interests.
Weaknesses of legislative process
• Inefficiency/low output results from
the excessive need to compromise.
Congress cannot act quickly and
often fails to agree on legislation to
address key needs.
• High levels of partisanship mean
parties are unwilling to
compromise, leading to more
gridlock. The Constitution requires
compromise for laws to be passed.
• Poor-quality legislation can come
from too much compromise. A bill
may lack coherence due to many
amendments and interests.
Prevalent pork-barrelling can create
financially wasteful policy not based
on rational decisions.
 Learning Outcomes
• To describe the legislative process
• To explain the complexities of the legislative process
and the factors that can affect it, including
partisanship and bipartisanship
• To evaluate the extent to which the filibuster is still a
useful legislative tool
 What is a filibuster?
• In the Senate, unlike the House, no time limits are set on the
speeches made for or against a bill. It comes from the Spanish
word filibustro, which used to describe a pirate.
• The words has come to mean anyone acting in an irregular
manner. A filibuster takes place in the Senate when a member
on the minority side tries to get a bill changed or killed by
talking for so long that the majority group gets fed up and
concedes.
• In the Senate, it is against the rules for a member of the
majority to end a debate in order to vote. It is generally the case
that no vote can take place if any Senator still wants to speak.
• Strom Thurmond, who talked non-stop for over 24 hours in
1957, held the record in Congress.
Watch the video clip: History of the Filibuster
 What is a filibuster?
• To end a filibuster, Senators can invoke what is known as a
cloture (a call for a vote), where three fifths (60) must vote, or
in certain circumstances two thirds of those present.
• This can’t happen, however, until two days after the cloture has
been proposed and signed by 16 senators.
• Even after cloture, there are still 30 more hours allowed, during
which time Senators can speak for no more than an hour. In the
event, this procedure is used less than one might suppose.
• During the presidency of George W Bush the Democrats used
the filibuster to such effect that the Republicans considered
changing the rules to make the process more difficult to
achieve. The Democrats lost their ‘supermajority’ of 60 not long
before the 2010 midterms and this made their position far more
difficult.
 An example of a
filibuster in a State
Senate

Wendy Davis on Abortion Rights

Famous Filibusters
 Learning Outcomes
• To describe the legislative process
• To explain the complexities of the legislative process
and the factors that can affect it, including
partisanship and bipartisanship
• To evaluate the extent to which the filibuster is still a
useful legislative tool
Why do only a small percentage of
bills introduced into Congress
become laws? (15)
 Why do only a small percentage of bills
introduced into Congress become laws?

The reasons only a small percentage of bills introduced into Congress

become laws include:
• the Senate and House are equal in legislative power and neither can
impose its will on the other
• the relationship between them is likely to be particularly strained if
they are under the control of different parties
• Congressmen and senators are resistant to centralised leadership
and their support for legislation will depend on their perception of
its electoral benefit to themselves
• there are multiple blocking points in the legislative process in each
house, as well as a conference committee at the end of the process
• the president has the power of veto which it is difficult for Congress
to override
PLENARY: How can a filibuster be used to force a
vote rather than stop one?
Watch video clip 1 Watch video clip 2
 Homework
Application Task:
Why do only a small percentage of bills
introduced into Congress become laws? (15)
Flipped Learning Preparation Task:
Functions of Congress: Oversight (Pearson p353-
355)
Stretch & Challenge Task
Article: Why the GOP might kill off the filibuster