Majority Party Advantages

Various actions can occur once a bill passes through the first house and awaits approval by the second. The course materials point out that if one chamber passes the bill the other may: pass the bill as it stands, send the bill to a committee, reject the bill, or ignore the bill (Unit 3 the Congress, 11). If referred to a committee, that committee would: examine the bill, change the bill, or both. If rejected, the rejecting chamber will apprise the other chamber of its act. If ignored, the ignoring chamber would press forward with its work on that chamber’s particular version of the bill.

Then, a reading clerk reads the bill section by section and the Representatives recommend changes. When all changes have been made, the bill is ready to be voted on.There are three methods for voting on a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives: Viva Voce, Division, and Recorded. If a majority of the Representatives say or select yes, the bill passes in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is then certified by the Clerk of the House and delivered to the U.S. Senate. When a bill reaches the U.S. Senate, it goes through many of the same steps it went through in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is discussed in a Senate committee and then reported to the Senate floor to be voted on. Senators vote by voice. Those who support the bill say “yea,” and those who oppose it say “nay.” If a majority of the Senators say “yea,” the bill passes in the U.S. Senate and is ready to go to the President.

All laws start as bills. Any one can draft a bill, a congressman, the President, even Mr. Hughes if wanted something accomplished. Anyone can draft a bill, but only a congressman can put the bill into the bill box. From the bill box it is given to the speaker of the house, who decides which committee receives the bill for the lengthy editing process. The real power of the Speaker of the House is deciding which committee gets the bill, whether he wants the bill to pass or be thrown out. Inside the committees there are subcommittees that where a committee is a large idea, like the Senate armed forces Committee, the sub committees such as the seapower committee. after a long editing process the bill is either passed or trashed. if passed and in the house the next committee the bill goes to is the rules committee, where the date and how long the bill is argued for will be decided. If in the senate, the bill will go to the majority and minority leaders, and they decide when the bill will be brought for the entire senate. again it is argued in the senate or the house and it will either be trashed or passed here too. Finally the bill should be a law right, nope, the bill has to be passed in the other house of congress. finally once it has been passed in both compartments, if the wording is not the same a conference committee meets, with representatives from both the house and senate deciding the final wording of the bill, only

In the United States, we have a congress. It is a democratic body that is also known as a legislature. This congress has two houses. The first house is the Senate and the second is the House of Representatives. The process by which a seat is filled in either the Senate or House of Representatives, is if there is a vacancy. However, for a Senate seat to be filled, one must be vacant and filled by appointment. When there is a bill that is before congress and needs consideration, it can take a great amount of time before it is processed through. Sometimes, it can be debated and held in congress before the House of Representatives approves it. It must then make its way to the Senate and finally the President, who can choose to veto the bill or sign it into law. Our Congress has more liberties and power than those in a parliament (Wilson, Diiulio, Jr. and Bose 216-217).

Have you ever wondered how bills are passed through Congress? Have you ever wondered why it takes so much time for a bill to be signed? Both of these questions will lead you to the same conclusion. You will find that the process of creating and passing bills is very complex and it requires multiple stages of revision that can be halted throughout the multitude of steps that it goes through. This essay will inform you on how a bill is passed through both houses of Congress.

The road a bill takes to becoming a law is a long and tedious process. First, the proposed bill goes through the House of representatives. Once the bill has been approved by the House, it is then begins its journey through the Senate. After the bill has been endorsed by the Senate, the houses of congress then meet in conference committees to prepare the bill to be sent to the White House. To summarize, the path the bill takes to become a law is a fairly complex impediment.

The House uses an electronic voting system, while the Senate cast their votes using non electronic methods. After voting has happened, roll call begins. The votes are recorded Yea for approval, Nay for disapproval, and present to acknowledge their presence but choose not to vote. If the votes a in favor of the bill, it is sent to the Senate for a similar process of approval. Once it reaches the senate the clerk will certify the bill and its amendments. Upon certification, the bill will have been “engrossed”. Just like the House, the bill can be sent to a committee for further review. They can choose to ignore it a proceed with their own legislations. If its not ignored it can be proceed to be voted on. Once all difference has been settled, the billed will have become “enrolled” where a bill had passed both House and Senate.

In the event a bill is strongly favored by the committee the Congress leaders have a floor debate. “Major bills must first go to the Rules Committee, which decides where bills will appear on the legislation calendar and the terms under which bills will be debated by the House” (Greenberg, 351). Specific rules include; the nature of the amendments, how much time can be spent debating, and a number if necessary. The committee has the power to have a “closed ruling” which allows for a yes or no vote. In a floor debate, the Senate determines the final form of the bill also, “The threat of a hold or a filibuster means that the minority in Senate plays an important role in determining the final step of legislation” (Greenberg, 352). After this step, the members of the chamber either vote once the bill has been reported or after the amendments have been added. Once

For a bill to pass in either chamber of Congress, it must receive the support of a simple majority of its members.

When first created, the Legislative branch had a lot of power, as a result a system to keep the power in check was created. “no law or resolution can pass without agreement, first of the majority of the people (via the House) and then of the States (represented by the Senate). This complicated Legislative may hinder as well as help” (Hamilton 93). When the Senate comes up with a bill or law it has to be agreed with by the House

After the bill is introduced in either house, it is then assigned to an appropriate sub-committee in that chamber. If the subcommittee does not discuss the bill or don’t like it, the bill is never discussed again by either the committee or the full Congress. However, if the full committee likes the bill and it is approved, then it is placed on agenda for a complete discussion by the full chamber. This can seemingly be unusual because, according to Marc A. Triebwasser, “90 percent of the legislation introduced into either the House or Senate never makes it beyond the committee process.” Committees have the ability to block the passage of the legislation process even if the bill is popular enough to pass, so that is also another reason why it is difficult to get bills past the committee process, such as the background check bill. Although 80 percent of Americans and a clear majority in the Senate (54 out of 100) voting

Barbara Sinclair talks about how the legislative process has changed in her book Unorthodox Lawmaking. Sinclair argues that in the past, Congress worked like it does in School House Rock, where a bill gets introduced in the House or the Senate, it goes through some committees, who make changes. It then gets voted on and either passes or doesn’t, and the process continues. The reality is much messier than that idealistic view of the legislative process. In reality, Congress uses obscure rules, attempts to bypass committees, and sometimes needs to negotiate across the aisle. The majority party controls how a bill gets to the floor. They usually influence whether the bill bypasses committee or not. Bypassing committee has an effect on the lawmaking process however.

The majority party is not able to be as powerful with their choices and ideology as they want. This allows for all parties and hopefully all of the population a rather equal representation in the government. It works as a check and balance to the House of Representatives who has overruled the use of the filibuster. The reason being that a bill passed by the House must also go through the Senate. The filibuster is a tool not to just be thrown around lightly by the minority party ,however, because at some point on down the line they will be the majority party and it could come back to hurt them. A lot of the time an actual filibuster does not have to be used by the minority however. The threat of the filibuster is sometimes enough to get the job done.

Ever since the advent of democratic systems of political decision-making in Ancient Greece, one of the primary concerns about democratic functioning has been the principle of majority rule. Whether a majoritarian system is divisive in its essence, paves the way for demagoguery, or obstructs minority groups from having a fair say in public affairs, criticisms of majority rule have and still persist nowadays. Indeed, notorious political figures such as Hamilton, Madison or Mill expressed concerns about the potential threat of a tyranny of the majority which would infringe on citizens’ fundamental rights. Moreover and recently, the outcome of the Brexit referendum has renewed the debate around majority rule and its flaws. However, within the context of the contemporary world in which democracy prevails, majority rule is the norm many states follow. Why is this so; how can majority rule be defended and what are its limits? In order to provide an articulate and coherent answer, it is first necessary to lay down some premises to the functioning of the democratic process. Then, after arguing for majority rule, its flaws shall be assessed before eventually drawing potential alternatives from such dysfunctions.

Most bills must have simple majority to pass. At this point of development, the process is especially exemplary because the bill in the Senate is now considered by debate to better illustrate its strengths and/or weaknesses. To summarize, the bill has now been passed by both houses of congress.