A First Look at Procedure

Online petitions are one source of ideas, though not always good ones.

Legislative Research

• Congress.gov and THOMAS
• GovTrack
• ProQuest Congressional 
• CQ Electronic Library
• Other sources
• US Code
• Citing US Code

Bill Drafting

• Types of measures
• Drafting manual
• An example of legislative language: gun show bill
• Senate Legislative Counsel
• House Legislative Counsel

The Name Game




A very recent example: The QUIET Act

Rules

• House Rules
• Senate Rules

Do They Read The Bills? No.  John Conyers:



The fiscal cliff -- search for "algae"
The committee system