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15 Things to Know about Taking It to the Floor0. Thomas is a cool place to get legislative histories1. The overall workload has generally declined this past half century.2. Getting a bill passed is hard work3. The most important thing about bill referral is that it usually determines who the bill’s murderer is.4. Committee reports are important---and controversial5. Getting bills to the House floor is a two-track process6. There are four major types of rules, in theory and practiceA Rule: H.Res. 36A Closed Rule: H.Res.311A very complicated Rule: H.Res. 1007. Floor business in the House is scheduled for everyone’s convenience8. The substantive consideration of bills in the House is in Committee of the Whole9. The Senate differs from the House in being looser10. Scheduling in the Senate by Complex Unanimous Consent Agreements11. Offering Complex Amendments More a Strategy in the Senate than the House12. Filibusters probably most powerful as the dog that didn’t barkFilibusters in the 108th Congress13. Roll call votes, in the aggregate, reveal behavior14. Interest group ratings the most visible practical application of the unidimensional spatial modelACU vs. P-R Ratings15 Things to Know about Taking It to the Floor17.251Fall 20040. Thomas is a cool place to get legislative histories• Home page• Intelligence reform legislative history1. The overall workload has generally declined this past half century.1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000year11001,00010,000HouseSenateHouseSenate2. Getting a bill passed is hard workMajor hurdleMinor hurdle House detail Senate detailIntroduction House originates tax bills Senate exclusively considers executive mattersReference to committee Done by Speaker, no right of appeal Done by presiding officer, w/right of appealCommittee consideration (subcommittee nested)Hearing, Mark-up, ReportScheduling Combo of Rules & leadership Leadership-centered negotiationsGetting on the calendar Multitude of calendars (union, House, correction, private, DC, discharge)Two calendars (general orders, executive)Getting off the calendar Simple: suspension;Complex: rulesSimple: suspension;Complex: unan. consentSetting the parameters of considerationRules Committee Unanimous consent under threat of filibusterFloor consideration Committee of the WholeDebate Constrained ClotureAmendment Germaneness rules strong Germaneness weakReconciling differences3. The most important thing about bill referral is that it usually determines who the bill’s murderer is.As a rule, a bill committed is a bill doomed. When it goes fromthe Clerk’s desk to a committee-room it crosses a parliamentary bridge of sighs to dim dungeons of silence when it will never return. The means and time of its death are unknown but its friends never see it again.--Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government4. Committee reports are important---and controversialCommittee reports, floor speeches, and even colloquies between Congressmen … are frail substitutes for bicameral vote upon the text of a law and its presentment to the President. Thompson v. Thompson, 484 U.S. 174, 191-192 (1988)(Scalia, J., concurring).“In my view a law means what its text most appropriately conveys, whatever the Congress that enacted it might have ‘intended.’ The law is what the law says, and we should content ourselves with reading it rather than psychoanalyzing those who enacted it.” Bank One of Chicago v. Midwest Bank and Trust Co., 516 U.S.264,279 (1996).5. Getting bills to the House floor is a two-track process• Formally, bills move from the committees to calendars, from which they are called up in order• Non-controversial bills are in practice considered under “suspension of the rules”• Controversial bills are in practice considered under a “rule.”6. There are four major types of rules, in theory and practice• Open•Closed• Modified closed• WaiverA Rule: H.Res. 36Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 554) to establish a program, coordinated by the National Transportation Safety Board, of assistance to families of passengers involved in rail passenger accidents. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. Each section of the bill shall be considered as read. During consideration of the bill for amendment, the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole may accord priority in recognition on the basis of whether the Member offering an amendment has caused it to be printed in the portion of the Congressional Record designated for that purpose in clause 8 of rule XVIII. Amendments so printed shall be considered as read. At the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee shall rise and report the bill to the House with such amendments as may have been adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or without instructions.A Closed Rule: H.Res.311Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order without intervention of any point of order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 3295) to establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and for other purposes. The bill shall be considered as read for amendment. The amendment recommended by the Committee on House Administration now printed in the bill, modified by the amendment printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, shall be considered as adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill,


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MIT 17 251 - Lecture Notes

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