Understanding the Legislative Process

This chapter begins by establishing a couple of "first principles" that practitioners—members of Congress and staff, plus lobbyists and other interested parties—all know form the basis of grasping what is going on. It looks at the creative lengths Congress may go to pass bills, with a close look at the process used to pass the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and considers what recent trends in the legislative process say about the contemporary Congress. The legislative process is anything but simple; in fact, most people find it extremely confusing. The legislative process as practiced today says a lot about Congress and the political system more broadly. In the Senate, the majority leader has scheduling power, but his situation is much more difficult to manage than the speaker&s;s. Most members of the minority party in the House, and even many in the majority party, are not going to get the attention and support of party leaders.