Congress’s primary duty is to pass laws. The legislative process is often slow, just as the framers of the Constitution intended. The framers believed that a slow-moving legislature would be less able to infringe on citizens’ rights and liberties.
Bills and Laws
Most bills that Congress considers are public bills, meaning that they affect the public as a whole. A private bill grants some relief or benefit to a single person, named in the bill. Many private bills help foreign nationals obtain visas, but they can cover a variety of other matters.
The process through which a bill becomes law occurs in several stages in both houses: 1. Introduction: Only a member of Congress may introduce a bill. After a bill is introduced, it is assigned a designation number. Only members of the House of Representatives may introduce bills concerning taxes. 2. Referral to committee: The leader of the house in which the bill was introduced then refers the bill to an appropriate committee or committees. 3. Committee action: The committees can refer the bill to subcommittees for action, hearings, markup sessions, and votes. The committee can also kill the bill by doing nothing at all, a process known as pigeonholing. 4. Referral to the full body: If a committee approves a bill, the bill is sent on to the full House or Senate. 5. Floor debate and vote: The full body debates the bill and then votes. The two houses differ significantly in how they handle debate: * In the House, the Rules Committee has the power to limit debate and the number of amendments offered during debate. A vote in which every member’s vote is recorded is called a roll-call vote. * In the Senate, members are allowed to speak as much as they wish and to propose as many amendments as they wish. There is no Senate Rules Committee. 6. Conference committee: Often, the two