Inside Congress: A Guide for Navigating the Politics of the House and Senate Floors

ISBN-13: 9780815727323 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 120 str.

Trevor Corning; Reema Dodin; Kyle W. Nevins

Opis

Required reading for anyone who wants to understand how to work within Congress. The House and Senate have unique rules and procedures to determine how legislation moves from a policy idea to law. Evolved over the last 200 years, the rules of both chambers are designed to act as the engine for that process. Each legislative body has its own leadership positions to oversee this legislative process. To the novice, whether a newly elected representative, a lawmaker's staff on her first day at work, or a constituent visiting Washington, the entire process can seem incomprehensible. What is an open rule for a House Appropriations bill and how does it affect consideration? Why are unanimous consent agreements needed in the Senate? The authors of Inside Congress, all congressional veterans, have written the definitive guide to how Congress really works. It is the accessible and necessary resource to understanding and interpreting procedural tools, arcane precedents, and the role of party politics in the making of legislation in Congress.

Spis treści

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction and Overview: Two Chambers, Two Ways
• The House of Representatives: Where the Majority Party Rules
• The Ways and Means and Appropriations Committees
• The Congressional Calendar
• The Legislative Process
• Leadership Structure
• The Rules Committee
• Rules of the House
• Types of Special Rules
• Open Rule
• Modified Open Rule
• Structured and Closed Rules
• Committee of the Whole
• Floor Procedure
• The Senate: Where Debate and Deals Rule
• Basics of Legislation in the Senate
• The Senate Calendar and Considerations of Time
• The Use of Cloture
• Life Cycles in the Senate
• Types of Bills
• Taking Votes
• Working through the Process and the Role of the Majority
• Majority Rule Versus Consent
• Germaneness
• Committees
• Amendments and the Amendment Tree
• Getting a Bill to the Floor
• The Standard Committee Process
• The Rule 14 Process
• HR Vehicle 71
• Consent, or "Hotlining"
• Privileged or Other Special Vehicles: Conferences, House Messages, Statutory Items
• Substituting a New Text, and Amendment to a Moving Vehicle, Bill Packages
• Procedural Tools in the Senate
• Common Moves and Terms
• Fast-Moving or Unusual Vehicles
• Changes in the Senate Rules
• The Senate as a Whole
• Conclusion
• Appendixes:
• A. Sample House Weekly Schedule
• B. Sample House Rules Committee Structured Rule
• C. Sample Senate Hotline Email
• D. Samples of Most Common Amendment Trees