Questions tagged [legislative-process]
Questions about the processes to create laws in different jurisdictions.
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How Does Military Budgeting Work? The 1969 Mansfield Amendment
I'm personally curious as to the impact of Senator Mike Mansfield's (D) amendment to the fiscal year 1970 Military Authorization Act (Public Law 91-121, Section 203) on science research and funding ...
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In the American Congress, how does a motion come forward to be voted on without the support of the Speaker or Senate majority leader)?
At least in the Senate it´s easier given the majority leader is not the chair, that would be the president pro tempore or the vice president. But in general, how does this happen if push comes to ...
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What's the highest number of amendments submitted for a law proposal in France, since 1958?
According to the French press, back on Feb 2
The members of the Social Affairs commission had been meeting since Monday morning to examine the government’s proposed pension reform and the 7,000 ...
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Who usually writes laws for legislators?
I can't imagine elected representatives come in with complete knowledge of how to write laws in legalistic language. The point of democracy is that people from all walks of life - most of whom are not ...
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Who limits what sensitive/secret information is shared with the US House Armed Services Committee? Can they get whatever they want for "oversight"?
Background; elected officials considered "vetted" by election and receive no formal background check before receiving sensitive/secret information
Politico's January 5, 2023 Speaker debacle ...
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Why not require a three-fifths majority to pass a bill in the US Senate instead of using a filibuster?
From my reading on the filibuster, I get the impression that the filibuster in the US Senate today is equivalent to requiring a three-fifths majority. Why doesn't the Senate just change the rule to ...
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Why were there no objections to the public release of the former US president's tax records at the House Ways and Means Committee meeting?
In the PBS NewsHour's December 20, 2022 video WATCH LIVE: House committee votes on release of Trump's tax returns it appears, if I understand correctly, that there were no objections heard to making ...
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Did the German Bundesrat ever have a vote with deliberate invalid votes?
The German Bundesrat contains representatives of the governments of each of the 16 Bundesländer (states). Certain laws from the federal government also need to pass a vote of the Bundesrat.
Each state ...
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Is there any good source of Hungary's legislative statistics?
Specifically, I am interested in figuring out the following pieces of information:
How many times have the parliament voted on legislative acts since the Orban government since 2010;
How many acts ...
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How frequent are publicly known quid pro quo legislative promises, similar to the pipeline deal with Manchin?
It was recently announced that Manchin voted for the Inflation Reduction Act in exchange for easier permits for the Mountain Valley pipeline. Are such publicly known deals commonplace in Congress? ...
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Origin of bill "urgency" in the Philippines, how does it work and how widespread is it in other democracies?
From the Philippine News Agency's December 30, 2021 article Duterte signs law creating Department of Migrant Workers
The creation and establishment of the Department of Migrant Workers is one of ...
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Why don't governments vote on one-off events where the decision is a matter of opinion?
Novak Djokovic recently entered Australia and encountered problems with his visa. He had apparently received a medical exemption to enter Australia, bypassing Australia's strict COVID restrictions, ...
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Are House and Senate "debates" pointless, aside from some PR value? [duplicate]
I watch the House and Senate "debate" periods on bills and wonder who they are talking to and what is the point, aside from the later video clips. Has any Senator or Representative ever ...
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Does any country have a viable 'limited filibuster' that allows minority party to selectively prevent only those laws they most dislike?
In the USA the filibuster allows minority parties to prevent passing of bills by the party in power, and is so effective at it that some would argue little get's done in congress since the minority ...
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What danger(s) does Chuck Schumer see in using reconciliation to increase debt limit?
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said that if Congress does not raise the debt limit by mid-October, 2021, the U.S. could default, which could have macroeconomic implications.
The Senate minority ...
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Isn't 50 +1 not enough to increase the debt ceiling and avoid a government shutdown
Currently, the Senate is split 50/50 but the Democrats have the presidency or they have a slim majority in the Senate.
My question is do the Democrats need a Republican vote to increase the debt ...
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Continuing Resolution majority necessary?
I have a fair understanding of the appropriations process but what I have trouble with is finding information about what kind of consensus is needed for a CR to pass Congress. Is it by simple majority,...
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Why is Spain not legislating vaccine-status check measures, after executive attempts to impose those were defeated in courts?
According to The Local (ES):
The reasoning of [Spanish] judges, both regional and national, is that having to prove Covid vaccination, testing or recovery status to enter a bar or visit a museum ...
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What is Uniform Civil Code?
India wants to bring Uniform Civil Code into the country. Current Narendra Modi Government has mentioned in their manifesto as well for the implementation for the UCC. One of the state in Goa has ...
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Why doesn't the Texas legislature nuke the quorum?
The GOP-controlled Texas Legislature finds itself unable to pass a voting bill due to State Democrats refusing to participate in the meetings, leading the state to lack a quorum. The GOP has made ...
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Name for a popular measure added to a bill for the purpose of later attacking those who vote against that bill?
I personally always call this a kittens-are-cute bill. The basic idea is that Party A wants to pass a certain bill, but they know it's wholly unacceptable to Party B. So what they do is add some (...
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What happens in the event of a tie in the Welsh Senedd?
The results of the recent UK elections have confirmed the continuation of a Labour government in the Senedd, winning 30 out of 60 seats.
This is one seat short of a majority, so what happens in the ...
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What parts of Biden’s proposals could be eligible for budget reconciliation?
President Biden addressed a joint session of congress on April 29 and proposed vast new federal social programs such as free community college and subsidized childcare for low-income and middle-class ...
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Can I see the expected future actions on a bill?
The Congress.gov site provides with detailed and up-to-date information about bills. However, I fail to find the information about any planned/anticipated actions related to an arbitrary bill, e.g. ...
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How do members of extremely large political bodies 'learn the ropes'?
The classic example is the New Hampshire State House, which is (in)famous for having an large number of members with a fairly high turnover rate, many of whom completely lack political experience and ...
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Is there any publicly available draft of the American Jobs Plan beyond the fact sheet on whitehouse.gov?
The whitehouse released this fact sheet on the American Jobs Plan. However, there are several ambiguities in the plan so I am trying to find a more detailed draft of the plan. The House of Reps has ...
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Understanding Texas legislative process
If a Bill passes the Senate in Texas, does that mean it becomes law as the next step?
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Has any recent Republican legislation been blocked solely by the filibuster?
The primary argument against reforming or abolishing the Filibuster seems to be that if (realistically, when) Republicans take control of the government again, there would be nothing keeping them from ...
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What is the point in delaying the signing of legislation that the President supports?
Once a president has already decided that they are going to sign legislation, why not do it immediately?
For example, on Wednesday, March 10, the House of Representatives voted to pass the American ...
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What would happen if Senators boycotted the Impeachment Vote
I know it would take a 2/3rds majority vote in the Senate to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. But what if a substantial number of Senators boycotted the trial, and declined to ...
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Can an older bill be picked up and voted on by a new congress? [duplicate]
Before the new congress took over in January 2021; the House of Representatives passed a standalone bill to increase the $600 stimulus payments to $2000, by sending an additional $1400 to every ...
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What is the minimum amount of votes needed in both Chambers of Congress to send an Admission to the Union resolution to the President?
Background
Admission to the Union in the United States seems to be a vaguely laid out procedure as described in Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution:
New States may be admitted by ...
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Why does H.R.335 not mention the nominee's name?
To my understanding, H.R.335 which became Public Law No: 117-1. was a bill before the United States House of Representatives which would provide an exception to 10 U.S. Code § 113 (a) in order to ...
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The House has passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act [closed]
What happens now? When will the Senate vote on it? And if the Senate passes, what happens then?
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What does "H St Aff" mean as an action taken on a proposed bill (Idaho)?
Idaho's legislature is in session. I've been monitoring their activity on this page. I can usually tell what abbreviations for actions taken on bills mean at a glance, but this one has me stumped:
...
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Why are congressional votes not secret?
In general, a person in the United States has the right to vote. As far as I can tell, this vote is private—no one else knows who you voted for. Why are the votes in congress public? Wouldn't it help ...
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How would a vote in US congress taken under duress be later invalidated?
My question is inspired by the hypothetical actions of some of the recent insurectionists, one of whom was pictured below:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/zip-cuffs-capitol-riots/
At least 2 men ...
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Does a tie in the Senate require the vice president to always be present in the Senate?
Would the vice president be required to always be in the senate chamber in order to break ties? If not, how often must she be there -- or does she need to be there at all to vote her tie-breaker vote?
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What happens after the president signs a bill into law?
Imagine I'm the head of some federal agency, let's say the Treasury. The president Tweets that he just signed a bill into law that requires me to send $600 checks to all Americans. How do I officially ...
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How do politicians scrutinize bills that are thousands of pages long?
The recently passed stimulus bill is said to be 5,593 pages long, and allocates $900 billion in funds. It's no surprise that there was no chance to read or amend the bill.
The logistics of revising a ...
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What is required to put a proposed law to a vote by the US house of representatives?
Suppose a member of the US (federal) house of representatives has authored a proposed law (a.k.a act?) and wants the house of representatives to vote on it.
What are the conditions (or different sets ...
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What prevents a single senator from passing a bill they want with a 1-0 vote?
As a follow-up to this question, the answer there indicates that by the rules set by the Senate, a quorum is assumed to be present unless someone requests a roll-call vote. Because of this rule, the ...
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Is more US federal Congress business decided by inaction now?
The US Congress can effectively stop business by choosing not to hear/vote on it. This way legislators don't have to go on record as actively opposing something, it was just never brought up.
Is this ...
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Is there a meaningful metric for how quickly different countries advance their legal systems?
Countries make laws. Then times change, or the group in power changes, or previous laws have unintended consequences, so they make new laws to change the previous laws. On and on and on, indefinitely. ...
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Why do Senators and Representatives miss so many votes?
We send these people to Washington to do one main job: to vote on bills to make them laws. For example, in the 115th Congress, 33 Representatives and three Senators missed 10% or more of votes, across ...
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How difficult is it to change Senate Committee rules?
As most of us are likely aware, Democrats are looking for any possible way they can delay the Senate taking up a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg so that the next president can decide who should be ...
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How many pieces of US legislation passed with a supermajority in both houses of Congress without being vetoed
To override a U.S. presidential veto requires a two-thirds supermajority in both houses of Congress. According to this Wikipedia page, this has happened 111 times. What I'm having trouble finding is: ...
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Does the US House of Representatives now allow "remote voting" from home? If so, how? Does the Senate as well?
CNN's Louie Gohmert, who's refused to wear a mask, tests positive for Covid-19 includes the following:
A number of lawmakers tested positive for the virus in the early days of the pandemic, while ...
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Least amount of time US government needs to pass a law?
Assuming control of both House and Senate, but this is a bill opposed by opposition, and leaving aside fast-track procedure what is the fastest this can be done?
I am thinking this is dependent on gag ...
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Why did the Senate use an existing bill that passed the House in July 2019 to create the CARES Act?
I was looking at H.R.748 - CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act on the Congress website. I was surprised to find that the bill originally passed the House on July 17, 2019. I ...
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