Perhaps the most important step in the legislative process is the work of committees. Committees work intensively on a proposed measure and on the forum where the public has the opportunity to be heard. At this stage, MEPs are carrying out a huge amount of work that is often overlooked by the public. There are currently 20 standing committees in the House of Representatives and 16 in the Senate, as well as several special committees. In addition, there are four standing joint committees of both chambers with supervisory powers but without legislative competence. The House of Representatives may also establish committees or small working groups to examine specific issues and report to it. A working group may be formed formally by a decision of the House or informally by the leadership of Members interested in the leadership of the House. The mere fact that each House has separately passed its own bill on a matter is not enough to call into question either bill for a conference. One House must first take the additional step of amending the bill of the other House and then pass it to form the basis of a conference. A member, usually the Chair of the Jurisdictions Committee, may seek unanimous approval to remove the House bill containing Senate amendments from the Speaker`s office, disagree with the amendments, and request or agree to a conference with the Senate to resolve conflicting votes of both Houses. In the case of a Senate bill with amendments in the House of Representatives, the House may insist on the House amendments and request a conference. For a discussion of Senate bills, see Part XVI.
If there are objections, the Speaker may recognize a Member for a motion if it emanates from the leadership of the Main Committee and any committee responsible for reporting on the bill: (1) disagree with the amendments of the Senate and request or agree to a conference; or (2) insist on House amendments to a Senate bill and request or accept a conference. This objective may also be achieved by a request for suspension of the Rules of Procedure by a two-thirds majority or by a regulation of the Committee on the Rules of Procedure. If there is no objection to the motion, or if the motion is accepted, a request for direction from the officers of the conference would be in order. This first request for instruction is the prerogative of the minority party. Instructions to conference participants generally ask managers to accept or reject a particular provision of the Senate or House of Representatives, or to adopt a broader political position where possible within the framework of the conference. However, these instructions may not contain arguments and are not binding on the participants in the House of Representatives or Senate conference. Once the request for instructions is settled, the Speaker appoints the managers, informally referred to as conference participants, on behalf of the House, and a message is sent to the Senate informing it of the actions taken by the House. A majority of the members appointed as participants in the conference must have supported the position of the House, as determined by the Speaker.
The Speaker must appoint the Members who are primarily responsible for bills and, to the extent possible, must involve the principal proponents of the main provisions of the Act when it is passed by the House. The President may appoint conference participants from more than one committee and determine which parts of the versions of the House and Senate they are assigned to. The number is set by the Speaker, and majority representation generally reflects the ratio for the House committee as a whole, but may be higher for major bills. The speaker also has the authority to appoint alternate participants to the conference under specified conditions and to add or remove conference participants after the initial appointment. The sources of ideas for legislation are endless, and bills come from many different fields. First and foremost, there is the idea and design designed by a member. This may be due to the election campaign in which the MP promised to introduce legislation on a particular issue if elected. It is possible that, even after taking office, the Member may have become aware of the need to amend or repeal an existing law or to pass a law in an entirely new area. However, it is not appropriate to consider: (1) a conference report; or (2) a motion to adopt an amendment in the Senate that has been flagged as disagreement by a conference committee on the third calendar day (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, unless the House is sitting on those days) after the report and accompanying statement have been tabled in the House of Representatives and made available to members in the minutes of Congress.
However, these provisions shall not apply during the last six days of the meeting. Nor is it appropriate to consider a conference report or a motion to dispose of an amendment in the Senate that does not agree, unless copies of the report and accompanying statement, as well as the text of the amendment, have been made available to Members at least two hours before their consideration. On the other hand, it is still used to request consideration of a report of the Rules Committee of the same day, which proposes only to waive the availability requirements for a conference report or a motion in amendment of the Senate that is not agreed. The time allotted for debate on a conference report or motion is one hour, divided equally between the majority party and the minority party. However, if the majority and minority leaders support the conference report or motion, one-third of the debate time shall be allocated to a Member who objects to it upon request. If the House of Representatives does not approve a conference report that the Senate has already approved, the report cannot be bounced back for the conference. In this case, Senate conferences are released if the Senate approves the report. The House of Representatives may then request a new conference with the Senate, and the conference participants must be reappointed.
Article V of the Constitution provides for two ways of proposing amendments to the document. Amendments may be proposed either by Congress through a joint resolution passed by a two-thirds majority, or by a convention called by Congress in response to requests from two-thirds of state legislators. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have a budget execution mechanism informally known as “pay-as-you-go” or “paygo”. In this system, it is not a question of considering legislation that increases the deficit or reduces the surplus over a certain period of exercises. Nor is it a question of considering a simultaneous resolution on the budget, or a modification thereof, or a conference report containing transitional directives, if the effects of such measures will lead to an increase in the deficit or a reduction in the surplus in a given period of the financial year. In addition, any committee report on a public bill or joint resolution must include a statement citing the specific powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution. Committee reports that accompany bills or resolutions containing unfunded federal mandates must also include an estimate prepared by the Congressional Budget Office of the cost of mandates to state, local, and tribal governments. If an estimate is not available at the time of submission of a report, committees are required to publish the estimate in the minutes of the Congress. Each report shall also include an estimate made by the Committee of the expenditures that would be incurred for the implementation of this bill or this joint resolution during the fiscal year in question and each of the following five fiscal years, or for the duration of the approved program if it is less than five years. The report shall include a comparison of the estimates of these costs with those made by a government agency and submitted to that committee.
Committees responsible for budget allocation, asset management, rules and standards of formal conduct are not required to include cost estimates in their reports. In addition, it is not necessary to include the Committee`s own expenditure estimates in the reports if a cost estimate prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office and a comparison prior to the submission of the report have been submitted and included in the report. Actions may be filed with the phrase “on request,” a term found after the names of the sponsors of bills and resolutions introduced or tabled at the request of the government or private organizations or individuals. Such proposals, while presented out of courtesy, are not necessarily favoured by the senators who support them. Bills from the president or an executive agency are usually introduced by the chair of the skills committee, who may belong to the opposition party. All legislative proposals and almost all formal measures of either House take the form of a bill or a resolution. Resolution: A proposal that has been approved by one or both houses of Congress and has no legal value, except for joint resolutions signed by the President. Resolutions generally fall into one of three categories. Simple resolutions, called H.Res. or S.Res., deal with matters that fall entirely within the jurisdiction of the House concerned. Concurrent resolutions, called H.Con.Res. or S.Con.Res., must be adopted by both chambers, but are not submitted to the President for signature.
Concurrent resolutions are generally used to adopt or amend rules that apply to both Houses, or to express the mood of both Houses. Joint resolutions, called H.J. Res. or S.J. Res., require the consent of both houses and, with one exception, the signature of the President and have the force of law if approved.
