Notes From March 19th, 2008

Different Types of Legislation
"At least Four Tests"
Bills:
-House of Reps or Senate then the number
-Create statutory law
- Can be public or Private (affects only a single person)
Joint Resolutions
- H.J Res or S.J. Res
-Same as bills expect the J. Res to amend the constitution
-Continuing resolutions are types of J. Res
Concurrent resoultions
-H. Con Res, or Sen. Con Res
- Used to fix adjournement dates and congressional operation budget
Resolution
-H. Res or Sen. Res
- Matters within the purview of one chamber
- "Special Rules" From the Rules Committee in the House of Rep are Resolutions
(Picking a chaplan for ex)
Generalities:
-Today Roughly equal amounts of legislation are submitted in each chamber.
-The Two chambers cannot act on the same bill at the same time
-All legislation must be sponsered by a member
-legislation is numbers in the order it is reveived


House
- Drop it in the "hopper"
-territorial Delegates an the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico can sponsor legislation, but not the president of the US
-Some speaker discretion in committee assignment
Senate
-One must gain the "Floor" or the recognition of the presiding officer (stand up)
- New legislative initiative is announced
-Any senator can object and delay the announcement.Type of Committee referral (next class)
- What percentage of all bills making it to referral are received become law? 10%
- Split referral is the most devious (less than 1% become law)
Single Referral (90%)
-Entire bill sent to a single committee
-Preferred by the sponsor of the legislation
Joint Referral (4%)
-Same bill sent to multiple committees
- has been done to try and speed things up, but it is just as likely a dilatory maneuver
Split Referral (4%)
-Bill is broken up and sent to multiple commuttees
-Bill is still known by a single #, so if any part is rejected the whole bill is dead
-Probably the least favorite alternative from the view point of sponsors
(Bills and joint reolutions are laws)