Bills and Committees

Stylistic comments

• Please, no "the purpose of this paper is..."
• In US English, periods and commas go inside quotation marks. Superscripts follow punctuation.
• Do not dangle your modifiers or split your infinitives!
• Avoid dropped quotations.
• Cut down on -ize words and management-speak.
• Avoid the passive.
• Use endnotes with Arabic numerals.

For next time, Davidson, ch. 8

Simulation committees?

The committee system

• How members end up on committees
• "Steering committees" in House & Senate (Davidson 195 of 18th ed.p p. 180 of 19th ed)
• Speaker-appointed House committees: Rules, House Administration, Intelligence
• Seniority and other criteria
• Removals;  The case of Ilhan Omar
• House and Senate jurisdictions are not quite the same.

LEGISLATION REALLY CAN PASS 

Also see 2019 public lands bill.  

Congress.gov record of the bill

We shall read Jill Lawrence's account of a similar bill from a few years ago.

Bill Drafting 

• How an idea becomes a bill
• Types of measures
• Drafting guide
• An example of legislative language: "Keep Our PACT Act"
• Senate Legislative Counsel
• House Legislative Counsel

Acronym Bills

• The EARN IT Act
• The STOP STUPIDITY Act
• The EL CHAPO Act
• The OMAR Act
• The NO CORRUPTION Act

Rules

• House Rules
• Senate Rules

Do They Read The Bills? No.  

USA PATRIOT Act:  “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism