May six. How a bill becomes a law--more or less!
I'll repeat for the -- so there are three elements in
this House and Senate. Usually done through committee but
already three roles in a sense that they play. One is the
individual legislatures introducing legislation. Two, they
hold hearings to see if they need legislation. So a second
is to see if legislation is needed and then introduce it.
So one is the introduction of legislation, whether needed or
not. And two is to see whether or not legislation is
needed. Hearings are held. And three is what we call the
oversight function. Overseeing the executive branch to make
sure that the legislation is actually being carried out.
Overseeing the executive branch. To see that legislation is
being carried out. So those are the three functions. Three
functions basically of Congress. And it's done through
committees. Most work is down through committees in
Congress. Each members of House and Senate serves on two
committees, sometimes three. There are sixteen permanent
committees in the Senate. They're called standing
committees. It doesn't mean that they stand. It means that
they go from session to session. So every Congress that
same committee will be there. The people on that committee
usually have first choice to be on it in the next Congress.
Each is two years, I think I mentioned that, because all
members of House of Reps are re elected every two years and
this is the 106th Congress. If the committee has a vacancy
because somebody left Congress than a new person can apply
for that committee and I pointed out to you that the
committees they want to apply for are the ones that are
going to help them bring home the pork and help them get
reelected and in their district. However, the party leaders
determine whose going to be on which committee so they may
not get the appointment. If they don't like you -- so you
better be nice to your party leaders if you want to get
reelected because you want to bring home the bacon to your
district.
There are 19 committees in the House that are standing
committees. Now these carry from time to time in small
numbers but not greatly. The Senate and the House also have
what we call special committees. Special committees are
committees that deal with narrow issues and sometimes go
from session to session. Generally they're terminated
within a short period of time. Like there's a committee on
aging. It's a special committee. Committee on crime.
Special committee. So in both House and Senate the total
comes to about 22 committees with the special committees and
every now and then they also create other kind of ad hoc
committees. Is it on your word list? Did I leave it
there? Yeah. And ad hoc committee is set up for a specific
purpose and time. It's got a time limit on it and it has a
direct purpose. Ad hoc committees. It's a temporary
committee in contrast to a standings committee or in
contrast to some special committees that sometimes are close
to standings.
As I indicated before and I'll say it again, 99 percent
of the legislation goes to committees and most of the work
is done in committee from the hearings to the oversight
functions therefore most of the time if you were to go to
Congress to look you go to the House of Reps you go to the
Senate you look down see what's going on there maybe one
person speaking maybe two or three people are mulling around
they're not there. They're not on the floor. They're in
committee meetings. That's where the action takes place.
That's where discussions are held that's where interviews
are held that's where speakers are brought in that's where
people are questioned.
I said the leadership of the House and Senate determine
things and that's very much apart of it. Um, we'll talk
about that leadership in a minute, but let's talk about it
from a different perspective. The person who presides over
the Senate that is to determine basically what's going to
happen, he runs the meeting, he calls the place to order, he
recognizes people is the vice president of the United
States. He is president of the Senate. I think most of us
in this class know that the vice president of the United
States is Al Gore. Most of the time he's not there,
although he can be. Should be. But they're often doing
other things. He's doing state functions going to funerals
whatever. So when he is not there he is supposed to be
replaced by the president pro tem of the Senate. Temporary
president and sometimes tempore. Did I mention who the
president of the pro tem of the Senate was in this class
before? It's Strom Thurman. Remember we talked about that
95 year old man? Well obviously, he's not extremely strong
either verbally or any other way to run a meeting. It's an
honor rarely most although the person running the meeting
when the president's not there what actually happens is
since most of the time nobody's there any way he's supposed
to be there. He doesn't want to be there so they turn over
the function of sitting and running the meet to some junior
senator who really is new and sort of like pledging, you
know, they're getting even with them in some way.
The person who presides over the House is the speaker of
the house. He is a member of the House. The president of
the Senate is not a member of Senate except he does have in
cases of a tie vote. Because there will always be or should
always be an even number of senators since there are two
from each state. So that there is the good possibility that
ties could occur. The framers recognize that and they gave
the president of the Senate the tie breaking ability.
Obviously being a democrat, the republicans don't want to
see too many ties because they want to see -- they don't
want to see it broken. Now that I think about it, oh, that
was in the House that's why it was a tie. 213 to 213, yeah
it wasn't in the Senate. If something is close, the
vice-president's going to be there to get to vote. Let me
tell you, he knows. If it's important issue specifically.
How often does it happen? It happens a couple of times each
session. The vice president does get a vote; ties do
occur.
The speaker of the house is elected by the house to
preside and since one party traditionally has a majority of
the house the speaker of the house is generally the person
from that party and the most powerful person in that party.
How they run the meeting, how they make appointments, all of
that's determined based on the power of the speaker of the
house. We kept hearing the name Newt Gingrich, but of
course he was pushed aside as speaker and he resigned his
post in the house, and so he is know longer there and a man
name Hasket (I am not sure on the spelling) has become the
speaker of the house who seems to be quiet nonchalant not a
lot about him. He certainly isn't the colorful personality
that we often identify with the speakers of house. Many of
the speakers of the house have become world renowned because
they have been fairly colorful personalities. Certainly
Newt was.
In both the house and Senate right now, the democratic
party is a minority party. The republicans are the majority
party. They hold a small majority in the house of reps. I
forget the number, it's about two 25 to 2 something. 218.
Yeah it's pretty close. In the Senate however, the majority
is much wired; it's 55 to 45. So there is a very strong
power to the republicans have in the Senate over the house.
Obviously the president who can't himself introduce bills
are more likely introduce any bills he wants through a
member of the house more than the Senate. Why? Because
it's a better chance he'll get through the house or the
Senate since the democrats are closer in number in the house
then in the Senate. If they were closer in the Senate he
will have a senator introduce the bill. It's only logical.
In the house and the Senate both parties have minority
leaders. The majority party is called majority leader, the
minority leader is called the minority leader. The majority
leader in the Senate is the most powerful person because he
has actually in many ways more powers than the
vice-president who is just a figure head. The individual
who heads the majority party and makes much of the decisions
in the Senate power almost equivalent to the speaker of the
house is Trent Lott. Many people talked about him as a
presidential candidates because he had presidential hair.
And I don't know if any of you have ever seen him, he does
have this -- what do you call it when you have this big
hair? Pompadour. Which is there's never a hair out of
place. It looks lake a wig. It's very very stiff looking.
No, I'm not jealous of his hair at all. Clinton's got real
white, have you noticed how white he's gotten lately? Yeah
he's getting -- maybe he's doing that purposely to make him
more distinguished. They say that when Jerry Brown ran for
president he was 36 years old. When he was trying to so he
died the side burns on his hair to make his side burns look
older. But in any case, Trent Lott is the majority leader
in the Senate. The minority leader is a man named Tom
Daschle. And he is the most powerful Democrat. In the
house of reps, the minority leader -- I'm sorry the majority
leader the republican leader is a man that many people
thought was going to go bye boy was able to maintain his
power when Newt left, his name is Richard Army. Dick Army.
The minority reader in the house is a man who many people
thought would run for president too and he chose not to
leaving the door open for Gore, it will be very interesting
to see Gore's got one person who may give him the run for
the money and that's a man named Bill Bradely who is a
former senator from New Jersey who played for the New York
Nicks and is a very human dynamic person but not the most
exciting personality I've -- in any case the man who
everybody thought was going to run against Gore because he
doesn't like Gore and he is the most powerful person for the
democrats in the House is Richard Dick Gephardt. Dick. The
minority majority leaders determine the organization of the
party. They determine who serves on committees. And along
with other party leaders they determine who's going to chair
the committees although as I indicated the other day most
people who chair committees in fact the vast majority they
chair the committee because seniority. Meaning there have
been there the longest. However they have to be of the
majority party because the most members of each committee
are from the majority party because there is more members of
that party in Congress in the House and in the Senate.
Both parties in both the House and Senate have assistant
party leaders. The names of the assistant parties leaders
we won't worry about but they are called whips. They whip
their people in line. Although in actuality I guess maybe
it's the same. The term whip that's used for the assistant
party leaders comes from the English dog the whippits. They
are sort of the like gray hounds and used in the fox hunts
by rounding up the fox and so the main job of the whips in
Congress is to round up the members of the party. To make
sure they get out to vote. They've got a secondary
important job too and that's fundraising. So they are major
fundraisers for the party in the House or in the Senate.
And they are in charge of making sure that people vote.
Getting back to Washington if need be. That's pretty much
the structure of the leadership. The democrats sit on one
side republicans sit together on the other. Their leaders
pretty well dominate what goes on.
There are some hired positions. There are civil service
positions in the House and Senate that are important
positions. One of those civil service positions is the
parlimentarian. What do they do? Does anybody know? The
job is to advise the presiding officer on parliamentary
procedure. Meaning, how things are supposed to be run.
When you could take a vote, when you can yell out of order,
when you can ask for special privileges, when you can ask
for a point of information. Most meetings run according to
parliamentary procedure. Sometimes it is spelled out in
bylaws. Most of the time along with the bylaws we follow in
parliamentary procedure a little book called Robbers Rules
of Order Revised. If you belong to any basic organizations
they always have in there that if it's not spell out there
you will follow the procedure from Roberts Rules of Order
Revised. It is the Bible of how to run a meeting.
I learned years ago that by knowing Roberts Rules of
Order it gave me a hell of a lot of power when I went to
meetings. Sometimes people got annoyed at me because
definitely put you in a position because people are afraid
to violate Roberts Rules of Order because afraid of the
legal suits and things of that nature. The legislature,
Congress, House, and Senate have a lot of rules as Roberts
Rules of Orders a laws they can make up rules that are in
violation of Roberts Rules and Orders that's fine as long as
it's in the bylaws but if not you have to follow the Roberts
Rule of Orders Revised. So it is the Bible of parliamentary
procedure. These are hired positions. They're not members
of the Senate or House. They advise the preceding officer.
The presiding does not have to follow that advice. However
if they don't, you can vote to order them to. That's part
of the Roberts Rules of Order Revised.
There is also in the House and Senate a Sergent of
arms. What is a Sergent of arms do? Keeps orders order.
They are the individuals like the bailiff in the courtroom.
They have people working with them but their job is to call
things to order to make sure things don't get out of order
to watch the doors, if you will. And the House and Senate
also has a historian. I'm not exactly sure what historians
do in the House and Senate since everything is in the
minutes anyway, but I'm sure part of their role is to keep
scrap books and records of information and newspaper
articles and thing of that nature for future district. So
those are the hired positions in the House and in the
Senate. And that pretty well spells out the structure of
the House and the Senate.
So that takes us into the issue a bill becoming a law.
Many of you are familiar with how a bill becomes a law. We
talked about this probably because every Saturday morning
you sit in front of the TV and study how a bill becomes a
law. Don't you? Junction? School house rock? You
remember that? I understand it's back on. How many of you
saw the school house rock when you were kids? Wow, it was
back there? Oh, yeah, but they put it back on. It was gone
for twenty years literally and then they did a show in San
Francisco they made a musical out of school house rock. And
about a year ago they put it back on. I guess they got
tired of commercials they were running. Whole new
generation of kids they couldn't -- all they could see was
their brain on drugs. And in any case, I should have
brought the cartoon. I picked up a video from Toys R Us a
couple of years ago. It would have been fun. I forget we
have an open TV in this room, so we can use it anytime. I'm
a bill -- on capital hill. The interesting part about the
video is it's not bad. It's actually pretty good and as you
watch it you begin to realize one element and that is that
most bills don't become laws, and it is a complex process.
In fact it is amazing that any bill does become law, but as
I indicated the other day, most of the bills that do become
laws are personal bills, private bills. They're minor
compared to the major bills. And I talked about that in my
book and I gave the example about the friend of mine who
brought his wife into the country through legislation since
have wasn't allowed to other wise.
Legislatures are the only ones that can introduce
legislation. You can't. I can't. You have to remember the
House or a member of the Senate. The president can't. He
has to go through somebody in his party who is a member of
the House or member of the Senate. Senators introduces
legislation in the Senate, members of House introduce
legislation in the House of Reps. They can introduce --
(by interpreter) They can or can't?
(by teacher) The president does not make law. Can't
introduce laws. He's a part of the law making process
through the veto process. He's a part of the law making
process in that he can recommend legislation which in the
general way such as the State of the Union speech, or he can
recommend legislation by going to a member of the House or
Senate. The office of the budget and management that he has
often works with Congress closely with the House of Reps I
should say in this case to introduce and create a budget.
We have to go back and forth on it, but the budget itself is
developed and introduced in the House by members of the
House. In that sense the president is no different from us
except that he's got better connections.
Can bills be introduced at the same time concurrently?
That often happens. Members of the house and Senate
introduce a bill at the same time so that they can work it
out and maybe get it through faster. That way it doesn't
have to go through the house get through the house and go to
the Senate. They can also get together an issue joint
resolutions they have joint committees sometimes big
investigations, be it Water Gate or Iran contra controversy
scandal, they can bring their committees together or appoint
special committees. But generally they work separately. In
conjunction with the other house, but separately. Okay.
We want a bill passed. Our legislature decides to go
ahead with it. Depending on how you introduce the bill if
the legislator wants he'll require that you introduce the
bill to him and even write it out in legal language because
bills have to be basically written legally so that it can be
fought or developed or carried out in the courts. So if it
is not written legally it goes to the group of lawyers who
will put the bill in legal language. The consent there is
that nobody understands it but lawyers, right? In fact that
was a very big issue made by first Jimmy Carter then Ronald
Reagan. Carter actually gave him executive orders on that
that all legislation that at least from his angle on the
executive branch but that all legislation that he have
alleged to make in plain English. It's impossible to make
anything in plain English. Lawyers do not speak, they're
afraid to put it in plain English because they're afraid
people will find loopholes besides them I guess. I don't
know.
So the bill is written up, you will go forth and try and
make the bill, if you can, bipartisan. What is bipartisan
mean? Bipartisan. Members of both parties. So what you
want to do is if you've already introduced a bill you may
want to get support from somebody from the other party. And
the point is that if you get members from both parties
there's a better chance of it going through the power of
obligation. Once you're ready to introduce the bill and I'm
not going to go through all of the details going through the
hopper and the clerk of the court, um, a bill is introduced
and it is given a number based on when it's introduce.
They're consecutive. But also based on the Congress. The
first bill introduced in the 106th Congress will have the
number one. In the Senate or the house. So the first bill
in the house is number one, for the house. The first bill
in the Senate is number one for the Senate in the 106th. To
distinguish where the bill began we put letters in front of
it. In the house the bill has HR in front of it. House of
reps. HR-756 would be the 756th bill introduced in the
house of reps. On the Senate, we have an S. 732 S-732 is
the 732nd bill introduced in the Senate. What would AB-30
be? The 30th bill introduced where? I'm throwing you off
here? In the assembly in the state of California. So you
can distinguish AB.
Now California has an a system whether -- what's the
other houses in California called? There are two houses in
the state legislature; the assembly and what? The Senate.
Yeah. To distinguish between a Senate bill federally and is
a state bill, state bills often have SB. Senate bill thirty
indicates it's a Senate bill in the state. It's a Senate
bill federally. Not too much confusion but just to avoid it
somehow. The bill once it's got it's number and name and
been written up, is sent to committee. 99.9 percent of all
bills go to committees. Does that mean that once in a blue
one a bill doesn't go to committee? Yeah. But very
unlikely and most bills die in committee. They never see
the light of day. They stay in the committee. They never
get out of committee. There are a number of reasons for
this. Oh, by the way -- it goes to the committee pertaining
to the bill. If a bill deals with the budget. It goes to
the budgetary committee. If it deals with military it will
go to an armed services committee. But sometimes there are
more than one committee it can go to. The determination
will be determined by the speaker of the house. That's
another power that they have. If he likes the bill he can
send it to a committee that he knows it will go through. If
he doesn't, he'll send it to a committee that's it will get
defeated in. The rules committee also makes recommendations
in the Senate as to which committee it should go to it
generally the first comes from the person who introduces the
bill. They also can recommend which committee they want to
study it doesn't mean it will get there but they can. The
bills as I say, in large proportion die in committee. Many
of the them die right away. From time to time, the
committee chairman have had what is called a the ability to
pigeon hold. Most pigeon coops have cubby holes where they
stay in. What's that got to do with the bill? A Pigeon
holding a bill is when the chairman of a committee stakes is
it into is a cubby hole and never gets to see if again.
Once it goes into the hole, or once it gets to the chairman
it can kill the bill by simply never having it discussed.
That's two. Three and we're out. I'm out of here I tell
you. The chairman also have an ability to ask the committee
to table the bill. To table, um, tabling a bill generally
means that it's supposed to be discussed at a later date but
when they do table it, it generally means it will never get
discussed. Tabling a bill generally is a way to kill the
bill. Tabling a bill. Can you see what's going on out
there. It sounds like they're dropping tile on a roof. I
wonder what's going on out there. Just curious. Well we'll
find out. That's weird that's a weird -- usually when you
say table a bill it's put on the table which means it's
being held off till a later date. In this case they seldom
bring it back. Then the chairman will decide which
subcommittee a bill will go to and bills will be examine in
subcommittee before going before the full committee. The
chairman has the capacity that maybe it will kill it or
subcommittee that might want to get it through depending
whether he likes the bill or not.
So most bills go to subcommittees where their chairman
are pretty powerful. The subcommittees will hold hearings
people will be invited to testify, people will be questioned
and generally they will make recommendations most of the
time the recommendations will also include word changes or
changes in parts of the bill. Then that particular those
particular changes then go to the full committee. The full
committee can discuss it. If the full committee decides and
the committees are much larger in the house and Senate the
Senate only has a hundred members the house the how has
435. Each person getting their say each person putting in
their two cents can go on and on and on. The committee can
decide not to send it out. In other words, the committee
can decide to kill it. Write it in committee. Sending it
out mean for full discussion for the full house. The
committee can kill it in committee. They can vote not to
send it out without changes or with changes. Or they can
vote to send it out with a recommendation for certain
changes. Or which is very unlikely, they can vote to send
it out with a recommendation to defeat. If it's a major
bill, that everybody is has been looking forward to they
probably will send it out giving everything an opportunity
to -- it doesn't mean that's what the house will do or the
Senate. Once it comes out of committee.
The functioning of the house and the Senate are a little
different. When a bill goes to the floor of the house
meaning to all the members of the house, it is broken down
into a smaller group. So you don't need as many people to
discuss the bill. There are 435 members of the house and
usually they decide that if there are two hundred members
present they can discuss the bill and take a vote on any
recommended changes with only two hundred people present not
meeting the full two hundred. However, once they take their
vote and that he make any change or decisions they decide to
do then it's got to go to the full house. All 435 members.
In so acting, the full house usually limits debate. If you
were to continue debating all the time you might be getting
nothing done.
The speaker of the house is powerful in this regard. He
sets the time for how long you're going to discuss the
bill. Let's say sixty people want to discuss the time he
says we will discuss it for three hours. That means each
person who is asked to speak on the bill gets three minute a
person. And maybe not realistic considering politicians
can't speak in three minutes but -- okay so they're given
three minute to discuss the bill. At that point, I may not
use my full three minutes. I may use two minutes and then
save a minute to rebut somebody else at the in. Rebuttal
means after everybody else has made their comments I talk
again saying why they were stupid are I made decide not to
talk for the full three minutes and speak for two. Fine
that I spoke fast and giver the other minute my other men to
else. Again the power of obligation I gave them time they
owe me time or something else in the future. Before I
forget is this Tuesday that I'm not going to be here?
Right? This Tuesday the 11th, right? The house then takes
a vote as the committee of the whole -- the house takes a
vote. And it's a majority vote can pass the
bill. Amendments can be added after discussion but the more
interesting he will men in the house is the ability to add
a rider to the bill. Riders are interesting because they
don't have to pertaining to the bill in the parliamentary
procedure in Roberts Rule of Order any amendments to the
bill must pertain to the bill. Sometimes either to kill a
bill or pass the bill are to get legislation pushed through,
that they didn't want to go to committee they add a sub to
the bill that has nothing to do with it at all.
For example I remember very years ago I think the bill
dealt with building bombers and they added to the bill a
rider that would allow for prayer in the school. Absolutely
totally different subject here we need to pray when the bomb
comes at us. They new it was defeated so the bombers were
defeated but a long was the -- which they new was blatantly
unconstitutional. Hey I voted for prayer I want school it's
not my fault that the atheist Congress defeated it. Well
they didn't defeat prayer in the schools. They defeated the
bomber bill. It bombed. So riders are a tricky way to you
know, in the house and Senate, you have to be present to
vote. You can if you for example if you need to go fishing,
you can workout a deal with somebody else. This guys going
to a junket to Hawaii and you're going to be there and
you've worked out you're going fishing. So you're voting
yes he's voting know so you can swap votes. If you have
somebody voting yes and you're voting know you can swap the
votes and don't have to be there. That's what's a junket.
Did I define it? Oh, okay. A junket is when legislatures
go on vacation supposedly to do some business and the
government pays for it. We're going to study the case of
shells and fish poisoning in Hawaii so we're going to
Waikiki and spent some days on the beach. Political
organizations often pay for them for the trip themselves to
go too on these trips and journeys supposedly for
investigations, yes. The PACS. Political action
committees. So junkets are government expense paid tours
that people question as to whether or not they have value.
If the bill passes the house and Senate, I'm sorry, the
house. It has to go to the Senate. The Senate has a
different way of after it comes out of committee. The
Senate has unlimited debate. The house has limited the
Senate unlimited debate. The reason well the fact that
there's unlimited debate in the Senate opens the door to
what we know as a filibuster.
A Filibuster is unlimited debate that allows a minority
in the Senate to talk a bill to death. Basically to talk it
to death. Once a filibuster starts, they can keep talking
and no business can occur. And they can talk all the time.
Against the bill whatever they want to talk about.
I mentioned Strom Thurman, he has the record for the
longest one person filibuster. He spoke for 24 hours and
six minutes and I think I mention that while he was doing
the talking most of the time all he actually did was read
from the Washington D-C-phone book. Which probably took at
least a few of those hours. Parliamentary procedure says
you're supposed to talk to the bill but the house and Senate
allow you to talk on other subjects and so he didn't talk to
the bill. Usually you talk and then you pass the ability of
the podium to somebody whose a friend of yourself yours.
Now the reason the filibuster is strong because nothing else
can be done and that means you can can't get paid you can't
get any legislation through and so many times people will
just say oh, to hell with it let the bill die even though
it's a small minority we have got to get this work done.
You can now in the filibuster. This was a period of time
you couldn't end a filibuster then there was a period of
time where it took 75 percent of the senators then two
thirds of the senators. Presently three fifth of the
senators can end filibuster. It's still not easy to do
basically step on somebody's toes. But you can end it.
Okay. Let's say the bill goes through the Senate. It's
gone through the house it could have gone through the Senate
and then the house. The bills that come out of the Senate
and the house the vast majority of the them have different
wordings. Why? Because membership in the house is quite
different from the Senate and they may not agree on the same
kind of issues. A bill cannot become a law unless it's
worded exactly the same in the Senate and the house. So
what happens now? Now a conference committee is
established. Conference committees an ad hoc committee just
for that bill and on that conference committee you sometimes
have from about nine to 27 members. The Congress committee
is made up of usually the leadership who have pushed the
bill and perhaps the leadership of the house and Senate. So
the people that have pushed the bill in the house and the
Senate get together to iron out the differences in the
wording of the bill in this conference committee. Each bill
has a different conference committee. So the bill is said
to go to conference. So that the words can be change. Who
can be changed to what -- what can be change to -- you know
the Senate gave a five percent raid -- so maybe the
conference will recommend a three and a half percent raise.
They try to work it out. If they can't workout the
differences in the conference committee the bill dies in
conference it's dead. If they can workout some compromise
in the conference committee the bill then has to go back to
the house and Senate for another vote. So once the
conference committee works out the differences the house and
Senate get to vote again. And the house says okay, the
Senate says we don't like it end it back to conference. So
it goes back to Congress they workout more deals then it
goes back to the house the house says okay we like it now
the Senate says we still don't like it the bill is dead.
Okay? So they can send it back to Congress or they can vote
know. If by some strange stance they vote yes and both vote
Yes, sir by majority vote the bill then goes to the
president of the United States.
The president of the United States has four options. As
of a few months ago he had five. He now has four what was
the fifth option. The line item veto that was given to him
by Congress was taken away by the courts. So, he know
longer has a line item veto he's got four option according
to the Constitution. Remember the line item veto was where
he could cross out any line or segment of the bill or page.
It could be overridden but it was a line item veto. A bill
comes to the president's desk, he signs it into law. Okay
he signs it into law when does it become a law? Well if
there's know date as to when it -- it becomes effective
immediately upon his signature is that in very important
legislation big legislation the president will sign his name
with a different pen for each the of his name. Anybody have
any idea why? Well it's ceremonial but it's more than that
why a different pen for each because he takes those pens and
gives them to the people present. Especially those that
work for the bill and then they frame it and pass it on to
their great grand children. Symbolic gesture which again
creates obligatory power. It's amazing how those little
things become so important in politics. The thank you
letters that you frame become important because you know
this is coming out of the president of the United States.
You know grand children and great grand children and my
great-grandfather met with president Lincoln. What would
happen if he sign it with one pen? He probably have to give
it to Monica Lewinsky. I mean I could, obviously but he you
know the game playing becomes very important for the power
of persuasion. And the power of obligation. That's all.
Okay. So he signs the bill into law or he refuses to sign.
Okay? He doesn't want to sign the bill. What happens when
he doesn't sign a bill? It sits there. For how long? A
week or two or something like this. No specific time
limit. You're right it's between a week or two. It sits
there for ten days. Then what happens? It dies. It
becomes law automatically. I guess I didn't tell you that
in this class. If the bill sits there for ten days without
him signing it after it is sent to him it becomes a law
without his signature. Note that is not a veto if he
doesn't sign it he simply didn't sign it why would a
president not sign a bill? Rather than veto it? Anybody
think of a reason somebody might not sign a bill and not
veto it? Maybe it's against his principles? Yeah it could
go against his principles but -- the bill is important. I
was just going to say maybe he doesn't want to look like
he's taking sides on the issue. Maybe not wanting to take
sides on an issue and yet you know it's important enough to
let it go through. There are a lot of reason that they
might not. It might embarrass him if he were to sign it.
But he lets it go. So it becomes a law within ten days.
The third option the president has number three, is to veto
the bill. If the president should veto a bill, he has to
say why. He specifically writes by he vetoes it. And then
it goes back to the house it originated it. Where it
started. If it started in the house of reps it goes back
first to the house. If it start in the Senate it goes back
to the Senate. And then the legislature has a right to
override the veto. If it goes to the house and the house
over rides the veto with a two thirds vote two thirds it
originally passed with fifty percent or more but they need
two thirds to override if it went back to the house the
house overrides it then it it's got to go to the Senate and
the Senate also has a override the veto let's see the house
didn't -- I'm sorry the house did override but the Senate
didn't. The veto holds. The bill is dead. If the house
gets the bill and votes not to override, it never has to go
to the Senate. Because the bill is dead anyway. It has to
be overridden in both the house and the Senate for the
override to take effect. I said this before I'll say it
again. The veto is a very powerful force. Only four
percent of presidential vetoes have been overridden. Are
you saying it's also two thirds or just the house? No.
Both the house and the Senate have to over with two thirds
vote. It's a two thirds vote in the house and a two thirds
vote in the Senate to override separately though. If the
bill is overridden, the veto is overridden, if the veto is
overridden the bill becomes a law. At that point or on a
day that it's on itself bill. But only four percent of it
overridden. So who would seen it? Nobody. It doesn't have
to be. Well I mean not nobody it may -- before a bill goes
to the president it's validated and deliver it is sign
officially boy the speaker of the house and the president of
the Senate. All they're certifying that it's passed so it
may well be but it may well be that they have to sign that
the veto was passed with you it's something that they're
just testifying to with they agrees with it or not. It
wouldn't surprise me. The fourth option is the pocket
veto. The pocket veto only occurs in the last ten days
actually nine of the session of Congress. If a bill should
arrive to the president and Congress is going out of session
in ten days, and then the president doesn't sign it, this
bill is dead. It is vetoed. Pocket veto. It the can't be
overridden. It is the most powerful force that the
president has. It's an absolute. Now when I say the last
ten days of the session, let us say for argument's sake
which is not the case that a session of Congress should be
365 days it's not a whole year but it's say it was but if a
bill came to the president win the first 355 days and the
president didn't sign it that bill would become a law after
ten days, right? But if it should arrive on the president's
desk between day 355 and 365 and he doesn't sign it then
that bill is pocket veto. There is nothing that legislature
can do it. They could re institute the bill in the next
session of Congress. Questions on the pocket veto? Okay.
Let's say that the bill becomes a law then what? Well,
there's another option interestingly. Somebody breaks the
law and challenged the bill in the courts as being
unconstitutional. Strange part about our society is that
before you can challenge a bill you have to have standing
and standing means basically have to break the law to
question the legality of a bill. So somebody breaks the
law, and takes it to court arguing it's unconstitutional.
Now depending on the bill it may take a couple of years or a
couple of weeks but it has to go to the Supreme court at the
ultimate in to determine whether it is constitutional or
not. If there is if they're willing to take it. Not a lot
of bills have been declared unconstitutional on the federal
level by the courts. A lot of state bills have in
violations of the federal Constitution but they do just like
they did with the line item veto. There are nine judges.
It takes five of those nine or nine but five of them minimum
to declare a law unconstitutional. Meaning it violates the
words concepts and spirit of the Constitution. If a law or
part of a law or one line in law is declared
unconstitutional the whole law is out. So what do you do?
Well, you introduce a new law without the unconstitutional
part. If you introduce it with a -- So you have to
introduce a new law without the unconstitutional part.
That's what's usually done. However in many cases Congress
decides to amend the Constitution. It can't be
unconstitutional if the constitutional says it's
constitutional. So they amend the Constitution. That has
seldom if ever worked. The American legislature the
American state legislatures the public do not like amending
our federal Constitution and so I can only think of one law
that was declared unconstitutional that they made
constitutional and it is not constitutional and that was the
income tax. The information act was originally declared
unconstitutional the 16th amendment was passed 1913 at that
point it became -- and so we pay an income tax. But when I
think about it I have to go through the amendments pretty
carefully but as far as I can recall that's about the only
one that was actually based -- there have been many attempts
from flag burning to abortion to make those things illegal
and many times they've gone through Congress with a two
thirds vote but they've died in the state legislature, they
have not passed. One of the ones that was very very
surprising and I'm still surprised it hasn't past. Most to
have the states before 1966 divided their state senates and
assemblies differently. The state senates for example in
California were divided by county. Each county had one
senator which made 58 senators. Therefore, Yolo county
which probably has about three people in it. Had one
senator San Francisco county would seven hundred thousand
people also had one senator. The assembly was divided by
population so Yolo county would have one -- San Francisco
county let's say 35. The Supreme Court said that that was
unconstitutional. It violated the concept of one person one
vote. Well how can we have a U.S. Senate and the house of
reps divided differently? Because that's in the
Constitution. But it didn't permit the states to do it the
big thing that was interesting was that the whole politics
change when it was declared unconstitutional because
previously the rural areas dominate state legislature.
People in San Francisco were being ripped used. People in
loss an were because all the money and all the decisions
were being made for the rural counties in the senates.
Which made sense they had the power because they had an
easier time of getting people into the Senate. Once after
1966 they had to have equal representation by reputation in
the Senate and the house, I'm sorry in the Senate and the
assembly, it took power from the rural areas and put it into
the cities. And now most of the major cities are really
controlling the state legislatures. That was passed an
amendment was passed in the house and Senate to allow the
state legislatures to be a divided according to section not
by population. At least one of the houses. And you would
thing that would have passed all in all but it did not get
through all of the 38 required states. It is still sitting
out there I don't know how many states have sign it today.
It wasn't one that had a time limit on it like the equal
rights amendment. So there are a possibility that it might
still change. Any questions on a bill becoming a law or any
elements of conference committee or the term that I gave
you? None? Are we sure? Positive. Speaks pour all of you
. so for the second time this semester you're going to get
out two minutes early. I will start the judicial system on
Thursday. A week from today.