How a Bill (REALLY) Becomes a Law

Civics 101

This episode of Civics 101 deconstructs the complex and often messy reality of the American legislative process. Moving beyond the simplifie

Key takeaways

• Approximately 90% of all introduced bills die in committee without ever receiving a vote.
• The Senate lacks a 'germane rule,' allowing senators to attach unrelated riders to existing legislation.

Main topics

• Legislative Drafting
• Committee Gatekeeping

Notable quotes

In practice, it very rarely works that way, and it's certainly not that simple.

Conclusion

The episode provides a sobering look at how partisan dynamics and proc

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:08) You're listening to Civics 101 from NHPR. I'm Nick Capodice. It is September, and my fellow parents out there know that this is the time that school starts, at least for a day, before they get days off for Labor Day weekend or something like that. But since we have some new listeners to Civics 101, we decided to ourselves go back to school. We do episodes on current events constantly, but we are, first and foremost, a show that explains the basics of how our government operates. It's how we started. And today is, without a doubt, our most used episode in classrooms. It is as schoolhouse rock as you can get. How a bill really becomes a law. Stick around. Well, here it is. Saw this coming a mile away. You sure gotta Speaker 6 (1:06) climb a lot of steps to get to this Capitol building here in Washington. Well, I wonder who that sad little scrap of paper is. Speaker 3 (1:14) I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill. And I'm sitting here Speaker 8 (1:19) on Capitol Hill. Do kids even know about this? Schoolhouse Rock? I Speaker 4 (1:23) don't even know. It was an educational animated TV show from the 1970s. I think we should ask a student. Speaker 8 (1:30) Do you have one in mind? Speaker 4 (1:33) Hello. Hello. This is Nick, right? It is Nick. What's up, Adia? Yes. Speaker 6 (1:40) Hi, Adia. Adia Speaker 4 (1:41) Samaqui was our first student contest winner. She's a civics friend. She had just finished taking a test when I called her. What was the test on? Speaker 6 (1:48) First and second New Deal programs, and then describe how some of them still exist in real life, and then talk about how they were successful or not in ending the Great Depression. I Speaker 4 (2:01) asked her if she knew the song, I'm Just a Bill. Speaker 6 (2:04) Yes. I had to watch it in fourth grade. We didn't even know what, I remember that, whether I just hooked Speaker 7 (2:10) up the press of like a bill becoming law. Speaker 6 (2:12) Oh gosh, like I know how a bill becomes a law, but not with the help of that video. So Speaker 4 (2:18) then I called a teacher, Eliza Ross. She teaches high school at AP Gov. I asked her if she shows it to her class. Speaker 7 (2:24) Every time. Oh yeah! They love it. They ask for it. And then there's always like one or two kids that are like, I've never seen it. And then I feel like they have to see it. I think that there are some details that are definitely missing. So what's missing? Speaker 3 (2:41) Yet Speaker 4 (2:41) a Speaker 5 (2:46) lot of wisdom. Millions of Americans tune in to Duck Dynasty. So I want to point out just a few words of wisdom from Duck Dynasty. Speaker 3 (2:53) Probably good Speaker 5 (2:56) for all of us to hear. Speaker 4 (2:59) I'm Nick Capodice. And Speaker 8 (3:00) I'm Hannah McCarthy. And Speaker 4 (3:01) today on Civics 101 and our Starter Kit series, we are going to follow that thread through the labyrinth. We are going to see how a bill really becomes a law. And I wasn't dragging on schoolhouse rock. It taught me that bills are brilliant ideas that are proposed. They go through committee, get voted on, go to the other house, end up on the president's desk. Zip, zap, zap. Bob's your uncle. So Speaker 2 (3:23) that's the sort of ideal version it's supposed to work. Speaker 4 (3:26) This is Eleanor Powell. She's the Booth Fowler Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin. Speaker 2 (3:31) In practice, it very rarely works that way, and it's certainly not. that simple. So in this unorthodox, messy world in which we live, essentially there are two paths. Speaker 4 (3:43) Two roads diverged in a chamber of Congress. So Speaker 2 (3:47) one is the really easy path where essentially if everybody's on the same page, there's not a lot of bipartisan disagreement, there's not a lot of conflict. What happens is essentially both chambers use these expedited procedures. The other path, the path of most legislation that you actually read about in the paper and you hear about in the news, is the stuff that's more controversial where there's more partisan disagreement. That stuff gets hard. and very messy. We're Speaker 4 (4:12) going to follow the complicated path for now. So part one, coming up with it. Speaker 1 (4:17) So the first thing is you have to come up with a bill. You have to have an idea, and then you have to translate that idea into what's called legislative language. Speaker 4 (4:25) I talked to Andy Wilson. He's a former staffer on Capitol Hill. Speaker 1 (4:28) An actual bill that adds to or amends some part of the United States code of laws. Speaker 4 (4:36) Members of Congress work with their staff to write bills. They can also get help if they need it from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Counsel, experts on legal language and how to write laws. Speaker 1 (4:47) So sometimes when you have the idea and you have it written, you take some time to gather up support for the bill as co-sponsors before you introduce it. Speaker 4 (4:54) If you've got several members of Congress as co-sponsors to a bill, that's like a signal that this bill has lots of support. Co-sponsors are just adding their name to it. They might not have even read the thing. Bills in the House can have a few co-sponsors. They can have hundreds of co-sponsors, which makes them many times more likely to become a law. And as to crafting a bill, I never knew this. Anybody can write one. Special interest groups, lobbyists, people who are raising money for your campaign. It just has to be proposed by a member of Congress. So Speaker 8 (5:24) once you, along with your staff, the Office of Legislative Council, and anyone else you fancy, have written a bill, where does it go? Speaker 1 (5:33) In the House, you have to take it down to the clerk of the House, which is a team of people that sit near where the president gives the State of the Union address every year. And you actually have to drop the physical piece of paper with the legislative language on it into a box. And that box is called the hopper. The Speaker 8 (5:51) hopper? Yes. Speaker 4 (5:52) In 2003, they replaced their hopper from the 1950s. It's just a wooden box. Speaker 1 (5:58) But the clerk takes the bill. gives it a number. It's in sequential order. So the first one in the new Congress is H.R. 1, House Resolution 1, or S. 1, Senate Resolution 1. And then it's assigned