1. For use with section 6.4

2. 1. Standing Committees these are committees that continually existbecause there is always some issue or billfor the members to deal with see chart on page 181 3. 2. Select Committees when a bill or issue arises that is notcovered by a standing committee, aspecial committee, called a selectcommittee, is created temporarily 4. 3.Joint Committees there are a few committees that are madeup of members from both the Senate andthe HOR these committees usually haveinvestigative duties to find out informationabout important topic of national concernto help guide policy and law-making 5. 4. Conference Committees consisting of members from both houses,these committees try to work outdifferences between House and Senateversions of bills 6. legislative branch makes laws 7. bill: a proposal for a lawA. Introduction most bills can begin in either the House of Representatives (HOR) or the Senate all bills specifically dealing with money (money bills) must begin in the HOR bills introduced into the HOR are dropped into a box called the hopper bills introduced into the Senate are read aloud by the person introducing it 8. 1. Assigned a Number when the bill is introduced it is given a number in the HOR it is assigned a number beginning with H.R. in the Senate it is assigned a number beginning with S.2.Steering Committee if the bill is important enough, the SteeringCommittee sends it to a standing committee or aselect committee is specially created for this issue 9. Committee Action committees review bills before they are sentback to the floor for debate and vote1. can accept the bill as it is without making any changes2. can make changes to the bill Riders: ONLY in the Senate; an amendment added to the bill that is unrelated to the topic of the bill3. may replace the bill with an alternative on the same subject 10. 4. Pigeonhole the committee can choose to ignore the bill altogether this will cause the bill to die5. kill bill the committee can decide that the bill is altogetherno good and will reject it 11. Floor Action1. In the House of Representatives the Rules Committee determines when the bill should be debated and sets the time limit for debate each members time and the duration of the entire debate the Speaker of the House monitors debate and the time limits members will take turns giving their opinions favoring or opposing the bill 12. 2. In the Senate the Senate will usually debate the bills in numerical order by default, Senators do not have a time limit on debate 13. 2. In the Senate a. Filibuster occurs when a single Senator or group of Senators agree tonever stop speaking about the bill the goal is to defeat the bill by having it withdrawn by theSenate Longest Filibuster: Strom Thurmond, 24 hours, 18 minutes,attempting to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957 b. Cloture this is a vote, usually before debate begins, to set a 1 hourlimit for each Senator to speak requires 60 votes this is done to prevent a filibuster 14. 1. Voice Vote a general vote of yea and nay it does not record each members vote2. Standing Vote each member will stand up when called for in favor, all opposed, abstentions each members vote is recorded 15. 3. Roll-Call Vote each members name is called and their vote is announced aloud a. computerized vote computers have replaced many of these methods ofvoting in Congress each members vote is recorded 16. each bill must be passed by both housesof Congress before the President sees it the entire process begins in the otherhouse all over again 17. Conference Action thefinal version of the bill passed by bothhouses must be identical if the changes are made after it goes to theother house a conference committeemeets to create a version that can beagreed upon by both houses 18. 1. Approve if the President thinks the bill is a good bill for the nation then he will sign it into law2. Disapprove (Veto) if the President does not think the bill is good then he will send it back to Congress with suggestions for changes 19. 2.Disapprove (Veto) a. Congressional Override if Congress has overwhelming support for a vetoed bill, it canvote to over turn the Presidents veto this requires 2/3 vote of both houses3.Pocket Veto if Congress submits a bill with less than 10 days remaining in the session, the President can veto a bill by not taking any action on it all letting it sit when this happens, the bill dies without ever being finally decided