Explore the legislative process in the Senate, including the role of committees, rules for debate, filibusters, cloture, and conference committees. Learn how laws are made in the Senate compared to the House of Representatives.
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Presentation Transcript
Making Law: The Senate Objective: To compare the law making process in the Senate with the House of Representatives.
The Senate Floor After being introduced and given a number, the measure is read twice and then referred to a standing committee. The Senate s proceedings are less formal and its rules less strict than those of the House. Bills are called to the Senate floor by the majority leader and usually in consultation with the minority leader.
Rules for Debate As a general matter, a senator may speak on the floor for as long as he or she pleases. Unlike the House, the Senate has no rule that requires a member to speak only on the measure before the chamber. Many bills come to the Senate floor under a unanimous consent agreement which limits the amount of floor time to be devoted to a particular measure. The Senate does have a two-speech rule.
The Filibuster A filibuster is an attempt to talk a bill to death when a minority of senators seeks to delay or prevent Senate action on a measure. Filibusterers try to monopolize the Senate floor and its time so that the Senate must either drop the bill or change it in some manner acceptable to the minority. The Senate tries to beat off a filibuster with lengthy sessions to wear down the participants.
The Cloture Rule Cloture, or limiting debate can be brought into play only by a special procedure. A vote to invoke the rule must be taken two days after a petition calling for that action has been submitted by at least 16 members of the Senate. Then if at lest 60 Senators vote for the motion, the rule becomes effective, which limits the talk to 30 more hours before a vote.
The Situation Today Filibusters have become much more common in recent years because party control in the Senate in usually a slim majority. Their filibusters are regularly successful because there hasn t been enough votes for the Cloture Rule to be effective.
Conference Committees Any measure that does survive the legislative process must have been passed by bother houses in identical form. When the two chambers pass different versions of the same bill and they can t agree on a version, then a conference committee is formed. The conference committee (members from both chambers) seeks to produce a compromised bill acceptable to both houses.
The President Acts The President has four options with regard to a bill: 1stoption The President may sign the bill, and it becomes law 2ndoption The President may veto (refuse to sign) the bill. Then the measure must be returned to the chamber where it originated. At this point, Congress may then override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. 3rdoption The President may allow the bill to become law without signing it (after 10 days). 4thoption Pocket veto. If Congress adjourns its session within 10 days of submitting a bill to the President and the President doesn t act, the measure dies.
