Warm Up: 10/31/131. What is the first step in how a bill

becomes a law?2. What types of things occur in

hearings?3. What are the 4 options the

president has when he receives a bill?

4. What is pigeonholing?

Unit 4:Legislation and Policy

Taxing & Spending

Taxing and Spending:Main Idea:Tax Policy

Notes:• It costs over $2 Trillion

per year to run the national government. The government gets most of its money to run the government from taxes.

• How Congress decides to collect and spend those tax dollars is referred to as tax policy.

Taxing and Spending:Main Idea:Decisions in the House

Notes:• The Constitution gives the

House of Representatives alone, the power to start all revenue (taxing) measures (laws).

• Almost all of our tax laws are dealt with in the Ways and Means Committee. The Ways and Means Committee decides if it will go along with presidential requests for tax cuts and/or increases.

• It also makes decisions on how much individuals and groups pay in taxes

Taxing and Spending:Main Idea:Closed-Rule

Notes:• For a long time, the

House Ways and Means Committee debated tax bills under closed-rule, meaning there were no amendments that could be made to tax policy outside of the Ways and Means Committee.

Taxing and Spending:Main Idea:Closed-Rule (cont’d.)

Notes:• In the 1970’s House

members were angry with the Ways and Means Committee, and pressured them to allow amendments from the floor.

• Since then, both the House and Senate have usually been able to amend tax bills from the floor—often adding amendments that have little or nothing to do with the original purpose of the bill.

Taxing and Spending:Main Idea:The Senate’s Role in Tax Bills

Notes:• When tax bills come

over from the House of Representatives, the Senate Finance Committee is tasked with doing the work on those bills.

• This may involve changing the bills so they can pass in the Senate.