government chapter 12 section 3

sieve

(n) a sifting device, gatekeeper.

Cosponsorship

- how to get a bill passed - Sponsor is the introducer, cosponsor signs on after introduction. - The more, the better. - Getting people who don't normally support you is especially good - Co sponsors ( get different legislatures to sign on bill and say I'm going to vote for this, getting people who don't normally support you is especially good)

house or senate

a bill is a proposed law presented to the __________________ for consideration.

30 days (7 in the rules committee)

a discharge petition enables members to force a bill that has remained in committee ___________________________ onto the floor for consideration.

resolution

a measure relating to the business of either house, or expressing an opinion; does not have the force of law and does not require the president's signature.

motion

a member can demand a vote by making a __________. then the house decides if they will support the bill or not.

discharge petition

a procedure enabling members to force a bill that has been pigeonholed in committee onto the floor for consideration.

joint resolution

a proposal for action that has the force of law when passed; usually deals with special circumstances or temporary matters.

bill

a proposed law presented to a legislative body for consideration.

concurrent resolution

a statement of position on an issue used by the house and senate acting jointly; does not have the force of law and does not require the president's signature.

tax bills

remember, bills can start in the house or senate and then have to go to the other house besides ______.

lawmaking process, little legislatures

standing committees play an essential role in the ______________________ and in both houses of congress. their place is so pivotal that they are sometimes called "_________________________."

house, either chamber

tax bills must first be acted upon by the _________. measures dealing with any other matter may be introduced in ____________________.

constitution

the ________________ makes no mention of standing committees.

speaker of the house

the _________________ can end a debate.

motion, floor, majority

the house can push a bill out of committee by one member can make a ___________ (for a discharge petition). to discharge that bill a majority vote of the house has to agree. so, if the bill gets stuck in a committee, a member makes a motion to release a bill, goes to a vote on the ______, the _____________ has to agree.

rules

the house has more limits when it comes to debate because it has more _________.

the house rules committee

the house of representatives committee that determines rules of debate on a bill:

mechanically, open

the house votes _______________ and they vote yes or no. whether it's the house or the senate, all votes are ______. they are recorded and published, no secret votes.

sieves

the standing committees act as _________.-- they sift through all of the many bills referred to them--rejecting most, considering and reporting those they find to be worthy of floor consideration.

engross

to print a bill in its final form.

policy

when a president has a ________, they push in congress to promote the bill.

subcommittees

once a bill reaches a committee, the chairman almost always refers it to one of several ______________________.

members, hopper

only ____________ can introduce bills in the house, and they do so by dropping them into the ___________, a box hanging on the edge of the clerk's desk.

majority (218)

any member may file a discharge motion and if the motion is signed by a __________________ of house members, the committee has seven days to report the bill.

fate of most bills

basically, the ___________________ is decided in standing committees rather than on the floor of either house.

cosponsors

before a member introduces a bill, he or she will inform other members why they think it should become a law. he or she hopes to persuade several other members to become _________________, thereby increasing the chances that the bill will be passed. by the time many measures are introduced, in either house, a number of members are listed on them as cosponsors.

standing committees

business, labor, agriculture, and other special interest groups often draft measures, as well. many others (bills) are born in the ______________________ of congress.

regulated

debate in the house is much more _____________ than debate in the senate.

pigeonholed

expression describing how most bills introduced in each session of congress are buried, put away, or never acted upon.

public hearings

for an important or controversial measure, a committee, or most often one of its subcommittees, holds ____________________.

10 percent

from 6,000 to 9,000 bills and resolutions are introduced in the house and senate during each session of congress. fewer than _____________ become law.

mondays

if it does not (if the committee does not report the bill), any member who signed the motion may, on the second and fourth ______________ of each month, move that the bill be discharged from the committee--that is, sent to the floor. if the motion carries, the rules require the house to consider the bill at once.

page

if the bill passes in the house, the speaker signs it and gives it to a ______ who are assistants in the house and the senate. it is then walked through congress and handed to the president pro tempore if it hasn't been introduced in the senate yet.

subpoena

interested parties, public officials, and others, are invited to testify at these information-gathering sessions.(public hearings) if necessary, a committee can issue a ___________, forcing a witness to testify.

quorum

least number of members who must be present for a legislative body to conduct business; majority.

executive branch

many of the most important bills are born in the _____________________.

pigeonholed, committee

most of the thousands of bills introduced in each session of congress are __________________. that is, they are buried; they die in _______________. they are put away, never to be acted upon.

majority, discharge petition

most pigeonholed bills deserve their fate but if a committee buries a measure that a ___________ of the members of the house want to consider, it can be blasted out of the committee with a _________________________.

public expense

occasionally, a subcommittee will make a trip to locations affected by a measure. these trips are made at __________________, and members of congress are sometimes criticized for taking them.

(1) report the bill favorably with a "do pass" recommendation. it is then the chairman's job to steer the bill through debate on the floor. (2) refuse to report the bill (pigeonhole it). this is the fate suffered by most measures in both houses. (3) report the bill in amended form. many bills are changed in committee, and several bills on the same subject may be combined into a single measure. (4) report the bill with an unfavorable recommendation. (does not often happen but sometimes a committee feels that the full house should have a chance to consider a bill or does not want to take the responsibility for killing it). (5) report a committee bill. the panel produces a substantially rewritten measure as a substitute for one or several of the bills referred to it.

when a subcommittee has completed its work on a bill, the measure goes to the full committee. at the chairman's direction, that body may do one of several things. it may: