Passing A Bill In Congress Essay

In general, for a bill to get through congress it must be introduced into either the House of Representatives or the Senate. Before getting to a vote, a bill must be sponsored or written by a member or members of congress. Then, the bill will head to committees and subcommittees where is will be fleshed out by various members of congress as well as competing interests in congress. It then must be introduced to the floor where it can be brought up for a vote. Please note, it is not uncommon for bills to â€Å"die† in committee. That is, for various reasons, the bill is never brought to the floor for a vote. There are a number of reasons for this, but usually it is because either the bill has so little support that brining it to a vote where is would lose tremendously would be considered a waste of time. When the bill passes one area by 51% on final vote it then moved to the other area where it must pass by 51%. (Please note: certain bills such as bills dealing with taxation) must be initiated only in the House as opposed to the Senate. Also, the Senate must close out final vote with 60 Senators in agreement to end amendments and discussion to the bill before moving on to final vote. After the Bill passes both Houses of Congress, it then goes to the President’s desk where it is signed into law or vetoed. If vetoed, the president’s veto can be overridden by Congress voting in favor of the bill by a 2/3 majority; in such an instance, the bill then becomes the law of the land. On a side note, there is somewhat more partisanship in the Senate because of the fact that there are only 100 members as opposed to the 435 members found in the House. As such, the votes in the Senate are usually viewed by the public as being more â€Å"in line† with a party’s stance as opposed to the House where votes are considered more reflective of locality. The numbers of roadblocks that can derail a bill are vast. However, if recent history was an indication of what the most common methods a bill can be derailed it would be one of two things: and inability to â€Å"purchase† the votes of representatives with earmarks and the public learning more about the bill and becoming dissatisfied. While this may seem like a somewhat cynical statement, it is validated by reports that appear in the newspapers everyday. Often, to get representatives and senators on board for certain bills pork barrel spending (money/spending appropriated for specific local districts) must be utilized in order to purchase the vote. If such a purchase can not be facilitated, a lack of enough votes to process the bill occurs. The other common roadblock for a bill is when the public learns the details of a bill and grows dissatisfied with the bill and then threaten to withhold votes/contributions if the bill passes. Of all the roadblocks to getting a bill passed, the most common throughout American history, however, would be the filibuster. In order for debate on a bill to end in the senate, there must be a 60 vote majority. If this does not occur, the debate can go on forever and the bill may not reach a final vote. Usually, when a bill can not get past the filibuster, it is a â€Å"dead bill† and it is pulled off the floor. If there was any lesson to be learned from the long process it would be the fact that this was a brilliant move on the part of the Founding Fathers as it forces the process to be slow and it gives the public time to be informed about legislation. Because the process is slow, it prevents radical changes in government from occurring too fast and it also prevents the public from being â€Å"blindsided† by legislation that they may not truly support. This allows for a stability in the government system that can be somewhat lacking in other parts of the world.