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Your Learning Objective
Your Learning Objective
CON-3.B: Explain how the structure, powers, and functions of both houses of Congress affect the policy-making process.
CON-3.B: Explain how the structure, powers, and functions of both houses of Congress affect the policy-making process.
CON-3.B.1: By design, the different structures, powers, and functions of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives affect the policy-making process.
CON-3.B.2: Though both chambers rely on committees to conduct hearings and debate bills under consideration, different constitutional responsibilities of the House and Senate affect the policy-making process.
CON-3.B.3: Chamber-specific procedures, rules, and roles that impact the policy-making process include:
◆ Number of chamber and debate rules that set the bar high for building majority support
◆ Roles of Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, party leadership, and committee leadership in both chambers
◆ Filibuster and cloture
◆ Holds and unanimous consent in the Senate
◆ Role of Rules Committee, Committee of the Whole, and discharge petitions in the House
◆ Treaty ratification and confirmation role of the Senate
CON-3.B.4: Congress must generate a budget that addresses both discretionary and mandatory spending, and as entitlement costs grow, discretionary spending opportunities will decrease unless tax revenues increase or the budget deficit increases.
CON-3.B.5: Pork barrel legislation and logrolling affect lawmaking in both chambers.
Essential Content
Essential Content
Organization of Congress/ Committees
Day One--
Slide Show Congress (slides 21-28)
*Interesting and helpful but not required:Congressional Partisanship, Coalitions, and Compromise
Congressional Committee Project introduction and assignments
workday #1 on project
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Day two--
Committee Project workday (day 2)
Slide Show Presentations due to your class's submission folder by
8:15 a.m Friday 11/22
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Day Three--
CFU Structure, Powers, Functions of Congress
Committee Presentations
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Day Four--- Part I of Two Day Lesson
How a Bill Becomes a Law
Lesson: Bill to a Law Part I
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Day Five-- Part II of Two Day Lesson
How a Bill Becomes a Law
Lesson: Bill to a Law Part II
Bill to a Law process video examples of Congress at work
CFU on Bill to a Law
Extra Support
Extra Support
Watch this 15-minute video that explains the budget process.
Note that the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 raised the spending limits that the expert in the video talked about based on the law in effect from 2011. A lot more is now available for defense spending.
Extend Your Learning
Extend Your Learning
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 ("Obamacare") was not debated and passed in "textbook" fashion. Open the pdf chart below left for a view of the bill in the House, the Senate, and then in "reconciliation" (i.e., not in a conference committee) to address the differences in the two versions. This should give you an idea of how knowledge of the rules and procedures of each chamber can be used to pass a law that is unanimously opposed by the minority party in Congress. In the end, the law's architect counted on the stupidity of the American voter to get it passed. Below right is a deep dive into how the ACA was passed, explaining all the ways the procedure did not follow the regular order.
ACA.pdfObamacare Legislative History.pdfReport abuse