The Dynamic Legislative Process Glossary

 

Act: The title used for legislation at three different stages of the process — [1] An “Act” is a bill which has been enacted into law after being passed by the Congress and approved by the President. [2] A bill which has passed both the House and Senate is called an “Act of Congress." [3] “Act” is also properly used when a bill has passed just one chamber. At that stage, it is designated as "An Act of the House" or "An Act of the Senate."

 

Amendment: A motion offered to change the text of a bill or of another amendment. Members can offer amendments either in committee sessions or on the House or Senate floor during debate on a bill. Members of Congress refer to proposals to change the text of a bill as "first degree" amendments, while proposals to change the text of another amendment are called "second degree" amendments. Three types of amendments can be offered — [1] to add words, [2] to strike out existing words, or [3] to strike out existing words and replace them with substitute language.

 

bill: A legislative proposal which would make law if it passes both the House and Senate and if it receives Presidential approval.

 

body: The House and Senate refer to each other as the “other body.” When speaking of his or her own chamber, a Member of Congress might refer to “this body.”

 

committees: Committees are panels of the House or Senate created to do the initial review of proposed legislation and to decide which measures are worthy of further consideration by the full House or Senate. The committees are each assigned various policy categories to handle, known as jurisdiction. The House and Senate each have about 20 permanent standing committees. The House and Senate also have select committees and joint committees. Every Representative in the House is assigned to work on an average of two committees; Senators are assigned to an average of four. Members are expected to become specialists in the subject matter under their committee’s jurisdiction.

 

cosponsor: A Member of Congress endorses a bill introduced by another Member by “signing on” to it. Some cosponsors work as hard to promote a bill as the original sponsor; others just lend their name as a supporter.

 

district: The geographical area in a state represented by a House member. Within a state, congressional districts are drawn so that each has an average of about 650,000 citizens.

 

floor: Members of Congress call the space where the House or Senate debate and vote “the floor,” more formally known as the House or Senate chamber.

 

hopper: The mahogany box on the House rostrum where Members place bills they are introducing. In the Senate, there is no box. Senators hand their bill to a clerk at the rostrum.

 

Houses [of Congress]: A reference to the “two houses” of Congress — the House of Representatives and the Senate. Speaking generally, “house” may refer to either chamber. In the singular, “House” refers to the House of Representatives.

 

Joint Committee: A committee shared by the House and Senate, with an equal number of House and Senate members serving on it. Joint committees do not consider and report legislation. Instead they have administrative duties or conduct research and issue studies and reports. There are four current joint committees: the Joint Committee on Printing, which oversees the Government Printing Office; the Joint Committee on the Library, which oversees the Library of Congress; the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides expert tax-code analysis to the Congress; and the Joint Economic Committee, which studies long-term economic trends.

 

Jurisdiction: A specific subject-matter area of legislative responsibility assigned to each of 20 standing committees in both chambers of Congress.

 

law: Legislation passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and signed by the President, or passed over his veto.

legislator: An elected person who represents citizens in Congress and helps make laws.

lobbyist: Individuals who represent the causes of a group, organization, association, or industry (or just themselves) and express those views to Members of Congress and congressional committees considering legislation in their areas of interest. Lobbyists must formally register with the Clerk of the House and Secretary of the Senate and reveal their expenditures. The term comes from the first years of Congress, when many Members lived in hotels during congressional sessions. People seeking to influence legislation would hang out in the lobby of the hotels seeking to speak to the Members as the came and went.

 

markup: A committee meeting when the original bill is “marked up” by amendments (changes to the original text). Members debate and vote on the amendments before any changes are made. Markups usually end with a vote to report the bill out of committee to the full House or Senate floor for further consideration.

 

Majority Leader/Minority Leader: The Member of Congress elected by the majority or minority party to be the party’s principal spokesman and legislative strategist. The Majority or Minority Leader is assisted by a team of party whips.

 

majority vote: The number required for passage of most bills and amendments. It amounts to half of the membership plus one. If a committee has 20 Members, a majority vote would be 11. The full House has 435 Members; therefore, a majority vote would be 218. The Senate has 100 Members; a majority vote there would be 51.

 

party whip: The whip [majority or minority] is a Member elected by his/her political party to count potential votes for the party leaders, and promote party unity in upcoming votes.

Whips send out notices to the Members in their party about the floor schedule, provide them with copies of bills and reports, and send out leadership advisories stating the party’s positions on issues coming up for debate.

As a verb, “to whip,” means to count heads for an upcoming vote.

 

political party: An organization that seeks to gain control of government by organizing people who share the same views on issues and by running candidates for public office.

 

select or Special Committee: “Select committee” or “Special Committee” are interchangeable terms for panels that are established to investigate a specific matter or study an assigned area. For the most part, they are not meant to be permanent fixtures but are created to work on a current problem, and have a temporary life span. Special/select committees are sometimes given the authority to consider and report legislation but most often they are limited to investigations and studies.

special interest group: Organizations or associations which represent a specific industry or community of people. Examples are labor unions, retired persons, teachers, insurance agents, doctors, or an ethnic or religious community. Specific industries may organize to protect their interests. Examples are automakers, tobacco growers, farmers.

 

standing committee: Permanent panels of the House and Senate, without a date set for their termination. There are about 20 standing committees in each chamber, with each assigned a specific area of legislative responsibility known as jurisdiction. Standing committees can also conduct investigations and practice supervisory oversight of federal programs, agencies, and departments whose responsibilities are part of the committee’s subject matter jurisdiction.

 

subcommittee: A smaller panel created by a full committee to specialize in specific aspects of the full committee’s jurisdiction. Most committees of the House and Senate have an average of four subcommittees to divide up their workload. Subcommittees do the preliminary work of reviewing proposed legislation and making recommendations to the full committee on whether or not the legislation should progress. They cannot make final decisions on their own, but must have full committee approval. Members of Congress assigned to serve on a full committee are further assigned to membership on one or more of its subcommittees and are expected to specialize in the subject matter assigned to that subcommittee.

 

town meeting: Town meetings are scheduled in one or more towns whenever a Representative or Senator travels back to his district or state. Town meetings are held to give constituents an opportunity to hear the Member speak about his activities and voting record in Washington, D.C., and a chance for the general public to ask questions, state their own views, or ask for assistance from their elected representative.

 

veto: The action taken by the President returning a bill to Congress with a message explaining why he refuses to sign it into law. To override his veto and allow the bill to become law anyway, both the House and Senate must pass the bill again, this time with a two-thirds vote. If all are present, that is 290 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate.