How Does a Bill Become a Law?

I’m Just a Bill by kilroyart.deviantart.com

“Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.”  Article 1, Section 7, Clause 2

This is a rather long clause in the document.  This clause is called the Presentment Clause.  Apparently, the Founders wanted to spell out the details of this process so there would be few questions of their intention.

When a bill is presented in one of the Houses of Congress, it must pass that House and then be sent to the other house for another vote.  You may hear the term “bicameral” in speaking of the two houses.  This means that we have two houses involved in the legislative process.  If only one House was involved, the term used would be “unicameral”.

Following both Houses passing legislation, the bill goes to the President for his signature.  If he signs it, it becomes law.  If he does not sign it, he must return it to the House where it originated with his objections.  This information is to be entered into the Journal for that House.  If he does not sign the bill but returns it, this is known as a veto, although the word “veto” is not in the document.

The Congress may then reconsider the bill.  If it passes the House where it originated by a 2/3’s vote; it can then be sent to the other House where it will be reconsidered.  If it passes that House by a 2/3’s vote, it would become law.  These votes must be cast as “yeas or Nays” and the names of those voting for and against must be entered into the Journal.

If the President does not return the bill to either House within 10 days (not counting Sundays) then the bill would become law.

The very last phrase of this clause is what we commonly call the “Pocket Veto”.  This happens when the President holds the bill (puts it in his pocket), and Congress adjourns, thus preventing him from returning the bill.  The Congress has by its adjournment prevented the President from returning it.  That bill will not become law.  This phrase is known as the Pocket Veto Clause.

According to David Forte, Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, there are three types of adjournments that the Congress can do:

1. Sine die – This is when Congress ends and the newly elected Congress will start a session.
2. Intersession – This is adjournment between two sessions of the same Congress.
3. Intra-session – This is when Congress takes a break within a session.

Much has been written and litigated about these different types of adjournment and whether or not certain pocket vetoes are valid.  It seems that the courts have generally upheld that a pocket veto can occur in any of these situations.   Today, when a President does a pocket veto, he does it with a “protective return” in case there is a question in the courts at a later date.

We the people give the President the right to approve or disapprove all bills.  We give the Congress the responsibility of coming up with a 2/3’s vote to override a Presidential veto.

The benefit to us is that we have checks and balances between both Houses of Congress and the executive.  This also prevents hasty action be either Congress or the Executive branch.

This is a video that will sum up this process for you:

References:

Findlay, Bruce Allyn and Findlay, Esther Blair. Your Rugged Constitution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950

www.wikipedia.com

www.heritage.org

Origination Clause

 

“All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other bills.” Article 1, Section 7, Clause 1, US Constitution

The Origination clause allows the House of Representatives to introduce any bills that have to do with revenue. Revenue means money collected by a government (as taxes).

The Founder’s intention in making the decisions for taxes and collection of revenue to come from the House was that the Representatives are the closest to the people who elected them. They should be the most aware of the needs of the people. They would also then be directly accountable to the people for any unpopular taxes.

James Madison

As James Madison wrote in Federalist 58:
“The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose the supplies requisite for the support of the government…. This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect, every just and salutary measure.”

Some scholars feel that the fact that the Senate can make proposals for changes to these bills weakens the power of this function of the House.

The Senate in recent times has developed a procedure known as “gut-and-amend”. In this procedure, the Senate removes the content of the bill that was proposed and sometimes keeps the title. In this way, the content of the bill has come from the Senate instead of from the House. The content could have come via the Senate from appointees of the Executive branch (i.e. the Treasury Department).

An example of a bill that was put through “gut-and-amend” in the Senate was the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare”.

Chief Justice John Roberts

Chief Justice John Roberts, in his opinion June 28, 2012 as to the constitutionality of the bill, opined that the mandate to purchase health insurance is indeed a tax.

“Such an analysis suggests that the shared responsibility payment may for constitutional purposes be considered a tax. The payment is not so high that there is really no choice but to buy health insurance; the payment is not limited to willful violations, as penalties for unlawful acts often are; and the payment is collected solely by the IRS through the normal means of taxation. Cf. Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., 259 U. S. 20, 36–37. None of this is to say that payment is not intended to induce the purchase of health insurance. But the mandate need not be read to declare that failing to do so is unlawful. Neither the Affordable Care Act nor any other law attaches negative legal consequences to not buying health insurance, beyond requiring a payment to the IRS. And Congress’s choice of language—stating that individuals “shall” obtain insurance or pay a “penalty”—does not require reading §5000A as punishing unlawful conduct. It may also be read as imposing a tax on those who go without insurance.”

There is a group called the Pacific Legal Foundation who is filing a lawsuit against the government over the Affordable Care Act saying that since the mandate is a tax, then the bill should have originated in the House and thus it is unconstitutional.

Please see the articles below for further information on the lawsuit based on the Origination Clause.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/31/obamacare-lawsuit-over-health-care-tax-will-test-c/?page=1

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/04/02/the-lawsuit-that-might-kill-obamacare/

Under Article 1, Section 7, Clause 1, we the people gave the House of Representatives the authority to originate bills to raise money via taxes. The House of Representatives have the closest connection to the people.

The benefit to we the people is that we can hold our Representative accountable and either continue their office in the House, or remove them if we feel they are not handling taxation as we think they should.

References:

Findlay, Bruce Allyn and Findlay, Esther Blair. Your Rugged Constitution. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950

http://www.heritage.org

http://www.wikipedia.com

Webster’s Dictionary