February 28, 2006

1
February 28, 2006

• Understanding the Roles and Clout of Committees
• Oleszek (Chapter 3)
• Me (Chapter 2)
• Setting Course (Chapters 1-7)
• But then, well, theres the budget.

2
Preliminary Legislative Action from
Congressional Procedures and the Policy
Process-Walter J. Oleszek
3
Categories of Bills

• Bills Lacking Wide Support
• Introduced with no expectation of passage
• Die in committee
• Noncontroversial Bills
• Expedited
• Passed on Floor with little debate
• Major Legislation
• Executive Branch Bills
• Influential Members Bills
• Must Pass Legislation

4
Bill Referral Procedure

• Receives a number H.R. in House S in Senate
• Speaker assigns bill to committee
• Parliamentarians make assignment on behalf of
  Speaker
• Referrals typically routine but committees clash
  over turf
• Representative can only appeal assignment in
  instances of erroneous assignment

5
Legislative Drafting/Referral Strategy

• Draft bill in such a way that it is referred to a
  favorable committee
• Technique 1 word it ambiguously so the Presiding
  Officer has options
• Technique 2 amend existing laws over which a
  committee has jurisdiction
• Know precedents regarding bill referral
• Parliamentarians provide advice to staff about
  referrals

6
Referral to Several Committees

• Committees often share jurisdiction
• Formal
• Informal
• Speaker allowed to refer bill to multiple
  committees since 1975
• Joint
• Sequential
• Split
• May create ad hoc committees to deal with bills
  that overlap jurisdiction of several committees
• 1995 Joint referrals abolished, but sequential
  and split are allowed

7
Consideration in Committee

• Options
• Consider and Report the Bill
• With amendments or recommendation
• Without amendments or recommendation
• Rewrite bill entirely
• Reject bill
• Refuse to consider bill

8
Consideration in Committee

• Whole Committee may consider bill
• Often Chair sends bill to subcommittee
• Public hearings or No Public Hearings
• Approve, rewrite, amend or block bill
• Mark Up consider the bill line by line
• Report bill to full Committee
• Whole Committee may repeat subcommittees
  procedures in whole or part
• If bill passes Committee, it is sent for
  consideration for Floor debate with a Report
  (statement of committee action)

9
Role of Committee Chair

• Controls committees legislative agenda
• Refers bills to subcommittees
• Controls committee finances
• Hires/Fires committee staff
• May refuse to consider a bill
• May refuse to recognize member for questions
• Used to be determined by Seniority
• Now subject to majority selection within caucuses

10
Hearings

• Format
• Traditional, Panel, Field, Joint, High Tech
• Purpose
• Public record of committee members and interest
  groups positions
• Orchestrated
• Testimony solicited and taken
• Timing
• Chairs may delay or schedule hearings to affect
  outcome of legislation

11
Markup

• Line-by-Line review of legislation by committee
  members
• May implement formal or informal procedures
• House markups occur at subcommittee and full
  committee levels usually
• 1/3 membership needed for quorum, majority needed
  to report bill

12
Markup Procedures

• Usually in open session
• Issues decided by voice vote or show of hands
• Proxy allowing a member to cast a vote for an
  absent member
• Banned by Republican Majority
• Modified rule allows Chairs to reschedule vote
  when they are certain of majority support

13
Report

• Written statement of committee action that
  accompanies a bill that has passed committee
• Describes purpose and scope of bill
• Explains committee revisions
• Outlines proposes changes to existing laws
• Outlines views of Executive Branch agencies
  affected
• Committee members may file Minority, Supplemental
  or additional views

14
Bypassing Committees

• Committee Power has diminished compared to Party
  Power
• Techniques to Bypass
• Partisan Task Forces
• Riders to Appropriations Bills
• House Rules Committee can send bills to floor
  without previous committee consideration
• Reasons
• Time, Partisanship, Committee Gridlock, Electoral
  Salience, Consensus

15
The Nature of Committee Jurisdiction from Turf
Wars-David C. King
16
Committee Borders

• Jurisdictions are, at once, both rigid and
  flexible.
• Sources of Jurisdictional Legitimacy
• Statutory Law
• Common Law

17
Statutory Jurisdictions

• Easy to quantify, rarely change
• Based on 1946 Legislative Reorganization Act
• Supposed to get rid of jurisdictional fluidity
• Previous statutory jurisdictions were imprecise
• committee boundaries were like gerrymandered
  electoral districts

18
Common Law Jurisdictions

• Precedents are KEY
• Decision are made by Parliamentarians routinely
• Typically affect discreet bills and not wide
  issue areas
• The closer a bill is to committee turf increase
  its chances of being referred to that committee

19
Policy Entrepreneurs

• Jurisdictionally ambiguous bills arise in areas
  that are not yet clearly defined and within
  issues areas that are undergoing redefinition.
• See turf as malleable
• Strike claim on turf as they are motivated by
  policy or election

20
Deficit 1996-2007
21
Federal Debt
Debt Held By Public
22
Deficit 2006-2016
Heritage 1/26/06
23
Deficit As A PercentOf GDP(In billions of
dollars)
1995
1996
1998
1999
1997
2000
-2.0
-1.1
0.0
1.0
1.7
2.1
24
Federal Debt 2006-2016
CBO 1/26/06
25
Interest As A PercentOf Total Spending
26
1967 Federal Budget
Social Security 22
Domestic 42
Medicare 2.8
Medicaid 1.2
Int. Affairs 5.6
Other Mandatory 31
Interest 10.3
Military 71.4
27
2,770,000,000,000
28
2007 Federal Budget
Domestic 455
Social Security 581
Int. Affairs 37
Homeland Security 34
Military 503
Medicare 387
Interest 247
Medicaid 205
Other Mandatory 320
29
The near-term strategy, even if successful,
leaves you with a long-term budget problem.
CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin February 13, 2005
30
Its time to get serious about our
nationsfiscal future.
Comptroller General David Walker November 14, 2005
31

• Federal deficits should not be the norm
• Accurate numbers are mandatory
• Borrowing today interest payments tomorrow
• Deficits make it hard to deal with current
  problems

32
Situation Is NotGetting Better(In billions of
dollars)
2002
2003
2005
2006
AVG
2004
2007
-158
-378
-412
-319
-423
-341
-354
OMB 2/06/06
33
2007 Bush BudgetWill Make It Worse
2006
2007
2009
2010
2008
2011
367
257
201
196
149
146
Baseline
36
107
22
12
34
59
Bush Budget
423
354
208
183
205
223
New Deficit
34
354,000,000,000
35
354,000,000,000
2,770,000,000,000
36
12.8
37
FY2007 Untouchables (in billions of dollars)
Social Security
581
Medicare
387
Medicaid
205
Other Entitlements
320
Interest On The Debt
247
Military
503
Homeland Security
34
Foreign Aid
37
38
FY2007 Budget (in billions of dollars)
Total
2,770
Untouchables
2,314
Whats Left?
456
Deficit
354
Difference
102
39
FY2007 Budget (in billions of dollars)
Whats Left?
456
Deficit
354
40
354,000,000,000
456,000,000,000
41
78
42
FY2007 Budget (in billions of dollars)
Whats Left?
456
Deficit
400
43
400,000,000,000
456,000,000,000
44
88
45
Oh Oh

• Eliminating the deficit by cutting domestic
  spending will be impossible
• Reducing the deficit by spending cuts alone will
  be impossible
• Whats Left will continue to bear the most pain
• Even higher deficits are possible

46
Whats Missing?

• Iraq
• Alternative Minimum Tax
• Social Security
• Permanent Tax Cuts
• More For Katrina
• Other Katrinas

47
WhyThe Bush Budget Is DOA

• Elections
• Leadership troubles
• Narrow majorities
• Hardened opposition
• Moderates feeling their oats
• Nussle
• Weak conservatives
• Last year

48
(No Transcript)
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10.
NO TIME!
50
Until October 1
Days
152
Legislative Days
99
Likely Legislative Days
55
51
January 2006
6
2
3
4
5
12
13
10
11
9
20
16
17
18
19
24
25
26
23
27
31
30
52
February 2006
2
3
1
8
9
7
6
10
16
17
15
14
13
23
24
22
21
20
27
28
53
March 2006
3
1
2
9
8
7
6
10
15
16
14
13
17
24
20
21
22
23
27
28
29
30
31
54
April 2006
7
5
6
4
3
14
10
12
13
11
17
21
18
19
20
27
25
26
24
28
55
May 2006
3
4
2
1
5
10
11
9
8
12
17
18
16
15
19
24
25
23
26
22
29
30
31
56
June 2006
1
2
7
8
6
5
9
14
15
13
12
16
21
22
20
19
23
27
28
29
26
30
57
July 2006
7
4
5
6
3
14
12
13
11
10
19
20
18
17
21
27
26
15
14
28
31
58
August 2006
2
3
4
1
11
9
10
8
7
18
16
17
15
14
24
25
23
22
21
30
29
28
31
59
September 2006
1
8
7
6
5
4
15
14
13
12
11
21
20
19
18
22
28
27
29
26
25
60
Budget Accounting Act
1921
61
Congressional Budget Act
1974
62
Gramm-Rudman-Hollings
1985
63
Budget Enforcement Act
1990
64
Balanced Budget Act
1997
65
2006?