Germane - Relevant to the bill or business either chamber is addressing. The House requires an amendment to meet a standard of relevance, being germane, unless a special rule has been passed. Hopper - Box on House Clerk's desk where members deposit bills and resolutions to introduce them. Morning Hour - A 90 minute period on Mondays and Tuesdays in the House of Representatives set aside for five minute speeches by members who have reserved a spot in advance on any topic.
Motion to Recommit - A motion that requests a bill be sent back to committee for further consideration. Normally, the motion is accompanied by instructions concerning what the committee should change in the legislation or general instructions such as that the committee should hold further hearings. Motion to Table - A motion that is not debatable and that can be made by any Senator or Representative on any pending question.
Agreement to the motion is equivalent to defeating the question tabled. Quorum - The number of Representatives or Senators that must be present before business can begin. In the House members must be present for a quorum. In the Senate 51 members must be present however, Senate can conduct daily business without a quorum unless it is challenged by a point of order.
Rider - An informal term for an amendment or provision that is not relevant to the legislation where it is attached. Substitute Amendment - An amendment that would replace existing language of a bill or another amendment with its own.
Veto - A power that allows the President, a Governor or a Mayor to refuse approval of a piece of legislation. Federally, a President returns a vetoed bill to the Congress, generally with a message. This is a card processor fee.
Please know that a recurring donation of the amount and frequency that you selected will be processed and initiated tomorrow. Continue to secure page ». Government For Teachers. Legislation is Introduced - Any member can introduce a piece of legislation House - Legislation is handed to the clerk of the House or placed in the hopper. Steps in Committee: Comments about the bill's merit are requested by government agencies.
Bill can be assigned to subcommittee by Chairman. Hearings may be held. Subcommittees report their findings to the full committee. Finally there is a vote by the full committee - the bill is "ordered to be reported. If substantial amendments are made, the committee can order the introduction of a "clean bill" which will include the proposed amendments. This new bill will have a new number and will be sent to the floor while the old bill is discarded.
The chamber must approve, change or reject all committee amendments before conducting a final passage vote. In the House, most bills go to the Rules committee before reaching the floor. The committee adopts rules that will govern the procedures under which the bill will be considered by the House.
A "closed rule" sets strict time limits on debate and forbids the introduction of amendments. These rules can have a major impact on whether the bill passes.
Debate House: Debate is limited by the rules formulated in the Rules Committee. If passed, it is then sent to the other chamber unless that chamber already has a similar measure under consideration. If either chamber does not pass the bill then it dies. If the House and Senate pass the same bill then it is sent to the President.
If the House and Senate pass different bills they are sent to Conference Committee. Most major legislation goes to a Conference Committee. So, the question arises: How can Americans improve their political system to ensure that the government is accurately representing the desires of its citizens? Congress must pass appropriations bills to function, leaving such legislation particularly vulnerable to the addition of unrelated provisions.
Even when a rider is unpopular, the only way for Congress or the president to eliminate it is to repeal the bill entirely. They often contain multiple subjects and are extremely long. Because riders are often covertly tacked onto appropriation legislation as a way for members of Congress to appear to be generating funds for their own districts, taxpayer money is wasted on provisions that benefit politicians in search of re-election campaign points.
A common practice among members of Congress is to use appropriations riders to offer or trade favors with other members in exchange for their support of a certain bill. In omnibus bills, excessive, wasteful spending is hidden within the massive legislation. Of greater concern than wasteful spending, however, is the corrosive effect riders and omnibus legislation have on the legislative process.
University of Tennessee law professor Glen Reynolds points out that most rider provisions would never succeed if voted on individually. Moreover, the use of riders gives Congress a method to effectively nullify the system of checks and balances established by the Constitution.
In Clinton v. City of New York , the United States Supreme Court ruled that the president did not have the power to veto specific provisions within bills termed line-item veto. Most importantly, the use of riders and omnibus bills decreases government transparency and allows Congress to conceal its manipulation of the system. Omnibus bills are excessively long to read and cover too many subjects to be truly understood in totality.
When a rider like the Hyde Amendment is consistently included over and over again, it becomes much more difficult to keep it out in future bills, which has had enormous implications for reproductive justice.
For the most part, when Congress and the White House are controlled by the same party, policy riders are less common because there is more agreement on must-pass bills. However there are a two key things to keep an eye out for:. Remember the Hyde Amendment we mentioned before?
Some Republican riders will be removed easily, as there is broad consensus among Dem MoCs to strip them out. Must-pass bills may still be used in attempts to pass legislation with bipartisan support. For example, the annual bill authorizing the Defense Department National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA often receives bipartisan support, and previously was used as a vehicle to enact a paid leave program for federal workers. We need to be wary of this during a trifecta, because bills like the NDAA that receive bipartisan support are often not nearly as progressive as we believe they should be.
That means popular policy riders could be used as a way of enticing progressive Democrats to vote for a bad Defense bill that perpetuates endless wars and has giveaways to greedy defense contractors. Moderate Democrats might also use these riders as political cover to justify their vote for the underlying bill, even if it includes harmful compromises. Be sure you know where your MoCs stand when these policy riders come up, especially if there is a particular issue that you care about. If you have a Republican MoC, they will likely try to attach harmful riders to bills, so exposing the damage their policies would cause will be key.
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