How a Bill Becomes a Law

Drafting legislation into a bill and then having that bill become law is not an easy process. In fact, only roughly 4% of bills drafted and introduced to Congress ever become law.
What does that tell you?

So then, how does a bill become a law
   See graphic on p.151

Not all bills are intended to become codified into law. Some bills are resolutions. Refer to p.150
Some bills are specific in what they address and some bills are very big (omnibus bills) and cover lots of issues. These types of bills are the most common place to find riders. They may be in the form of an earmark or some other type of pork-barrel project.

Basic flow of bills: (House of Representatives)
- Introduction
- Referral to Committee
- Referral to Sub-committee
- Hearings on bill
- Report back to Committee
- Markup by Committee
- Report back to full House
- Referred to Rules Committee & assigned rules
- Referred to Speaker for scheduling
- Introduced to the floor for debate (refer to p.153 on how debate functions in the House)
- Vote on bill
- Sent to the Senate
- Bill goes through senate process
- Vote in Senate
- Bill referred to Conference Committee
- Final bill vote in House
- Final bill vote in Senate
- President signs/vetoes

A classic!

The Senate

The membership of the Senate was designed by the framers of the Constitution to be chosen by the state legislatures with each state appointing 2 senators to represent the interests of that state.
What changed that?

Formal qualifications for the Senate
- minimum 30 years of age
- US citizen for a minimum of 9 years
- resident of the state to be represented

Now that the people at-large get to elect their senators, there are certain informal qualifications that the people look for (whether they mean to or not)
- older (wiser)
- prior experience
- high education (ivy league)
- whiter (Senate is less diverse than House)
- manlier (Senate has fewer women proportionally than House)
- wealthier (called the 'millionaire's club')

"In a recent election, Senate candidates spent over $400 million in 33 races." -- from the text
Do the math. How much spent per race? Average of how much per candidate?

Leadership positions in the Senate
(again, selected by party caucus)
Party leaders (majority and minority) special note: majority leader most powerful in Senate
Party whips (majority and minority)
President of the Senate
President Pro-tempore

Committee structure is roughly the same thought the committees themselves are different. Also, pay attention to the seniority rule.

The most unique thing about Senate procedure is the filibuster.

Basically, a filibuster is an attempt to talk a bill to death. By perpetuating debate, the opposition hopes that the party in the majority will table the bill in order to move on to other legislation.
1917 - Senate adopts rule which allows motion for cloture to be adopted with 2/3 vote
1975 - cloture motion rules changed from requirement of 2/3 support to 60 votes

The Senate too has rules on expulsion and filling a vacancy. read p.147

The House of Representatives

Members of the House are chosen every two years by the people of their district through elections.
(See chart on p.138 for salary and privileges)

Minimum qualifications (per Article I Section 2)
- minimum 25 years of age
- US citizen for a minimum of 7 years
- resident of the state in which the district representing is

Q: Once voted in, can someone be kicked out of the House?
A: Yes. The House can vote to expel a member for any reason with a 2/3 majority vote.

Informal qualifications for a seat in the US House
- live within the boundaries of the district
- military background or name recognition
- quality education
- wealthy
     "In 2006, the winning and losing candidates for each seat in the House spent a combined average of more than $1.5 million." --from p.138 of the text

Reapportionment & Redistricting
- 435 members in the House (fixed at that number in 1929)
- Each district represents approx. 690,000 people for correct apportionment
- Each state guaranteed a minimum of 1 seat in the House, so ratio not always perfect
- House is reapportioned based on census
- Malapportionment is unconstitutional (Wesberry v Sanders ; Davis v Bandemer)
- Gerrymandering (drawing district boundaries for political advantage) does happen and isn't necessarily          unconstitutional
                depends on whether the courts feel that the boundaries disenfranchise or violate the equal                             protection clause

Leadership positions in the House    Article I Section 2 Clause 5
(selected by party caucus)
Speaker of the House (most powerful)
Party leaders (majority and minority)
Party whips (majority and minority)

House Committees
This is where things happen

Standing Committees
- permanent committees; usually have sub-committees that report to them
   examples: Budget, Foreign Affairs, Rules*, Ways & Means* (*=something notable)

Select Committees
- created to carry out a specific task
   example: Watergate investigative committees

Joint Committees
- addresses issues that affect both House and Senate

Conference Committee
- members of House & Senate resolve differences in two similar bills passed for same purpose

Note importance of Committee Membership and Committee Chair positions

Implied, Non-legislative, and Limits on Congressional Power

Implied Powers
Again, this is all about the necessary & proper clause (aka the elastic clause)
See chart on p.134 for examples


Non-legislative powers
These are the powers that Congress exercises that don't involve lawmaking (legislating)
- propose amendments to the Constitution
- conduct investigations (oversight)
- impeachment (House: impeach / Senate: trial)
- choose President if no victor in electoral college (House)
- choose Vice-President if no victor in electoral college (Senate)
- advice & consent (primarily Senate)


Limits on Congressional power
See Article I Section 9

additional checks that limit Congressional power
- judicial review
- Presidential veto
- limited enforcement of law by the executive

Congressional Checks on Power & the Expressed Powers of Congress

Congressional checks on power
The legislative branch can check the power of the executive and/or judicial in the following ways:

- power of the purse (executive)
only Congress controls appropriations (bills that direct funds to a specific purpose)

- advice & consent (executive & judicial)
treaties, government officials, justices of the court are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate

- impeachment (executive & judicial)

Congress can charge a member of the executive or judicial branch with wrongdoing (impeachment) and bring them to trial

Rough diagram of the impeachment process

- amendments (judicial)
only Congress can propose an amendment to the Constitution

- veto override (executive)
Congress can override a Presidential veto of legislation with 2/3 support in both Houses

- Congressional oversight
Congress can hold hearings, conduct investigations, etc regarding what various other elements of the government are doing

Let's quickly review the various powers of Congress: Article I Section 8
Expressed (Enumerated) A1 S8 C1-17
Inherent
Implied A1 S8 C18

And don't forget the powers denied to Congress: Article I Section 9

Now let's examine the Expressed Powers in detail
Article 1 Section 8 Clause 1 - power to levy taxes (remember sources of tax revenue)
Clause 2 - power to borrow money (borrowing can lead to deficits)
Clause 3 - power to regulate commerce (commerce clause; Gibbons v Ogden; HofA v US)
------
Clause 11 - power to declare war (War Powers Act)
Clause 12 - raise an army
Clause 13 - raise a navy
------
Clause 18 - to do what is necessary & proper (necessary & proper clause/ elastic clause)
This gives implied power and we will look at that next time.

Welcome to the Congress

We live in a democratically-elected representative republic. Therefore, each elected representative is tasked with representing the will of their constituents (the people they represent). This is not an easy task however. Think of what it really means to represent a large group different people. For every decision, a good representative must take into consideration the following:
- constituents
- interested groups (interest groups)
- "the people" (the good of the nation as a whole)
- self (personal beliefs)

If you take all of those into consideration for each decision, then you can see that legislating well can be a very difficult task.

The Structure of Congress
As we know, by way of the Great Compromise, Congress is a bicameral body.

Theoretical map of US for apportionment

Map of the US for equal representation of state

And this is a map of the United States Congressional Districts

Time to play..... Who's in Congress?!!!!

Basic rule of thumb (yes, it's a huge generalization but tends to be true....awkward)

-older

-whiter

-manlier

-richer

than the general American population as a whole