Dance of Legislation

The ‘Dance of Legislation’ is what an idea has to go through before it becomes a law. Legislation may be introduced in the House or the Senate, or even in both at the same time. The only exception is when dealing with financial issues, in which case the legislation has to start in the House. An example would be the issue of free tuition. Any member of Congress, voting or non-voting, can introduce any idea into the Congress. Once the idea has been introduced, it has two years to get through the Congress. If it does not succeed within the two years, it has to start all over again. This is due to the two year cycle of the House. On average, around 13,000 ideas are proposed in Congress each year; and of these 13,000 only about 400 actually become law; less than 5%. The House committees are usually made up of around 20 to 50 representatives whilst the Senate committees are made up of 10 to 20 senators. The chairman of any committee is typically the majority-party member who has served the longest on the committee.

The idea that has been submitted is sent to a committee who handles the idea. In the case of free tuition, the idea would be sent to the Education and Labor Committee. From here,

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In the sub-committee, the idea, or bill, has to go through three stages; the hearing, the mark-up and the vote.

When the bill reaches the Senate, it has to go through the same process again. If successful, the bill goes to the Senate and the Senate can also override the President’s veto by a majority two-thirds vote. If it fails to get a majority, the bill dies. This of course is assuming that Congress is still in session in Washington. Once he receives the bill, the President has 10 days to do something about the bill. If it fails to get a majority vote, the bill dies. There are two types of ‘rules’, an open and a closed rule. Once the bill has been given a rule, it is then sent to the floor of the House for consideration. Unlike the House, there is no time limit to how long a bill can be debated in the Senate. Interestingly enough, only 51 votes is needed to pass a bill. If he suggests changes, the bill then goes back to the House. The floor debate is controlled by the Speaker. There is also no limit to the number of amendments that can be made to the bill. If it passes, then the compromise is voted on in the Senate.

Approximate Word count = 1262
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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