Legislative Process (United States)
The United States legislative process describes the making of all federal laws at the federal level and requires the involvement of the President and Congress .
Unlike many other states, legislative initiatives for federal law in the United States can only come from Congress. The President has no right of initiative . However, the two chambers of congress are not on an equal footing: all laws that are supposed to bring in taxes must be proposed by the House of Representatives . Traditionally, the Senate is also barred from proposing laws that include state spending. In all other areas, the legislative process can begin in the Senate or in the House of Representatives.
suggestion
Proposals for new laws can be introduced by any member of one of the two chambers or one of the delegates. These proposals can be based on ideas from the MP's constituency, decisions by a state, or, in the majority of cases, initiatives by the President or one of his ministers or other officials.
In the House of Representatives, suggestions are placed in the hopper , a wooden box in the plenum near the podium. The MP or delegate who makes the proposal is known as the sponsor . Other members of the House can show their support for the proposal as co-sponsors by signing the proposal. It is no longer customary to read the entire legal text before committee work in plenary. The Speaker of the House of Representatives determines which committee or committees will process the proposal in accordance with the rules of procedure.
In the Senate, the procedure is a little more complex. Bills are usually passed to the Presidency without debate in plenary. However, a senator can also ask the chairman during a debate to come up with a new proposal. This proposal is often accompanied by a detailed comment from the senator. Senators traditionally have the right to verbally reject legislative proposals or to prevent them from being introduced. If there are no objections, the title of the proposal is read and referred to a committee for negotiation.
Committee work
All proposals are discussed in the committees and modified if necessary. The committees are divided into subject areas. So there are z. B. a budget committee, a legal committee and a defense committee. The House of Representatives has 20 and the Senate 16 standing committees. In order to manage the large number of proposals, the committees are divided into sub-committees with limited areas of expertise.
The work in the committees is divided between the examination of existing laws, expert opinions on the effect of proposed regulations and consultations with the authorities that would be tasked with implementing the new law. Committees also have the right to issue subpoenas in order to compel statements about the scope of the submission and to gather useful evidence. In some cases, committees also hold hearings, giving the public the opportunity to comment on legislative proposals.
Meetings of the committee and the reports and documents it produces are normally available to the public. Many of the meetings are broadcast on the parliamentary television channel C-SPAN . The public can, however, be excluded from the meeting by majority vote in the committee.
After all hearings, the committee sits in a meeting known as a markup , in which MPs from all political groups have the opportunity to discuss their positions and determine the committee's further decisions. The possible resolutions here are the forwarding of the proposal, with or without changes and with or without a recommendation, to the plenary, the suspension of the committee work until a certain day or the permanent suspension. In the latter case, the proposal is practically obsolete and is usually not discussed further. Before the debate in plenary, the committee draws up an official report including all the amendments that have been adopted and the results of all inquiries carried out.
Debate and vote
The debate in the House of Representatives takes place more strictly than in the Senate. This can largely be attributed to the differences in the number of members of the two chambers. Strict time limits for speaking are designed to ensure that every MP has the opportunity to speak on a bill without stalling the House. On the other hand, speaking in the Senate is not restricted and the filibuster tactic has gained notoriety outside of the United States as well.
The debate is followed by a vote in which all the Members present take part. This takes place either with voice, with standing up or individually. After the spokesman has ascertained the valid outcome of the vote, the final legislative proposal will be reprinted and sent to the other chamber.
Second chamber
Each legislative proposal must be passed identically by both chambers. For this purpose, the chairman of a chamber sends the completed draft law to the other chamber after the vote there. In this "second processing", the same process as described above is run through again.
A variant of this procedure is to introduce the same or a similar bill in parallel in the Senate and House of Representatives and discuss this so-called companion bill (in German roughly “partner bill ”) almost simultaneously.
Mediation Committee
After both chambers have passed the draft law, a check is made to see whether any proposed changes in the second chamber differ from those in the first chamber. If this is the case and the first chamber rejects these changes, a conference committee (mediation committee) is called. This consists of an equal number of MPs and Senators and is now trying to combine the two versions. If the committee succeeds in this, both chambers have to vote again on the final version. Otherwise, a new mediation committee may be convened or the bill may expire.
president
After the draft has been approved in identical form by both chambers, it is sent to the President by a messenger from Congress. The President has three options at this point:
Acceptance or inaction
If the President agrees with the draft, he signs the submitted version and usually writes "Approved" on the piece of paper . When signing federal laws, in some cases (increasingly since the 1980s) the President adds a written comment on the interpretation and manner of execution of the law by the executive ( Signing Statement ), the legal meaning of which is disputed.
The law takes effect at the moment it is signed, unless Congress stipulates otherwise in the draft. The law is also deemed to have been adopted if the President does not agree or reject it within ten days (excluding Sundays).
veto
The President also has the option to reject a law passed by Congress. The president is limited to rejecting or accepting the law as a whole; a so-called " line item veto " is not provided. This stipulates that only certain parts of a law are accepted or rejected and is currently granted to most state governors . The veto must take place within ten days of receipt of the proposal by the President. If the Congress is adjourned within this period, the law of the constitution is deemed to have been definitively rejected ( pocket veto ). Otherwise the veto can be overruled by a two-thirds majority in both chambers. In this case, the law will become final on the day of the final vote or on the day stipulated in the law.
literature
- Christoph M. Haas, Winfried Steffani , Wolfgang Welz: The legislative process, in: dies. and Wolfgang Jäger (ed.); Government system of the USA: Lehr- und Handbuch, 3rd ed., Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 3486584383 , pp. 185–204
- Oleszek, Walter: Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process. 7th edition, Washington, DC 2007
- Sinclair, Barbara: Unorthodox Lawmaking: New Legislative Processes in the US Congress. 3rd ed., Washington, DC 2007
- Kurt L. Shell, Andreas Falke : Chapter Politics, in Peter Lösche Ed .: Country Report USA. History, politics, economy, society, culture. Federal Agency for Civic Education BpB, 5th neub. Aufl. Bonn 2008 ISBN 9783893318513 ISSN 0046-9408 pp. 94-195
swell
- How Our Laws Are Made - United States House of Representatives publication
- ↑ “How Our Laws Are Made” infographic by Mike Wirth and Dr. Suzanne Cooper-Guasco for Sunlight Foundation “Design for America Competition” 2010, sources: “How Our Laws Are Made” by John V. Sullivan (Rev. 6.24.07 thomas.loc.gov) and What is a Lobbyist? - wiseGEEK and Reconciliation in the Senate - Brookings Institution ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ companion bill glossary of the Senate
- ↑ Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was declared unconstitutional by US Supreme Court decision Clinton v. City of New York, 524 US 417 (1998) Argued April 27, 1998; Decided June 25, 1998
- ↑ despite the unspecific title only on constitutional issues of the USA, including federalism
