The document provides information about how bills become laws in Congress and about gerrymandering. It explains the 10 step process bills must go through, including being introduced, debated in committee, voted on by both the House and Senate, and sent to the President. It also describes how political parties can manipulate redistricting to their advantage through gerrymandering when they control the state legislature, and efforts to reform the redistricting process.

1. More Information About Congress
• The purpose of this slideshow is to teach you
some additional information about the US
Congress.
• In particular, you will learn how a bill is passed
into law AND you will explore the issue of
gerrymandering.
• Use this slideshow to complete the
assignment I will give you in class.

2. How A Bill Becomes A Law

3. What is a Legislature?
• What do legislatures do?
– Legislatures pass laws. That is their main function.
They propose, consider, debate, and vote on bills.
• Bill: a proposed law before it is approved; draft
legislation

4. What is a Legislature?
• How a FEDERAL bill becomes a law
– Step 1: A bill is introduced by a member of
Congress. Almost all bills can begin in either
house.*
– Step 2: The Clerk or Presiding Officer accepts the
bill and gives it a number. (H.R. for the House and
S. for the Senate, so a bill might be H.R. 1 or S. 1)
– Step 3: The bill is assigned to a committee.
*Appropriations bills (bills about money) must begin in the US House of Representatives

5. What is a Legislature?
– Step 4: The bill is debated in the committee.
– Step 5: If the bill is approved by the committee, it
is sent to the floor of that house.
– Step 6: The bill is debated “on the floor” and then
is voted upon by all the members of the house.
– Step 7: If the bill passes in the originating house,
it is sent to the other house.

6. What is a Legislature?
– Step 8: The process repeats in the second house
(committee debate, committee vote, floor debate,
floor vote).
– Step 9: If the second house passes the bill, it is
sent to the President for signature.
– Step 10: The President may sign the bill or veto
the bill.

7. What is a Legislature?
• In truth, the process is much more complicated.
– Revisions are made: the language is edited, the bill is
amended, riders are added….and this tends to happen
in both houses.
– By the time a bill reaches the executive for signature,
it often bears little resemblance to the original.
– Each change must be approved by both houses….so
you can see how one bill might end up going back and
forth between committees and houses many times.

8. What is a Legislature?
• Some terms associated with bill-passing.
– Amendment: a change in a bill.
– Rider: a non-germane amendment - an amendment
to a bill that has little to do with the substance of the
bill.
– Pork Barrel: when a bill is loaded with riders that
contain “pet projects” added by legislators. If the bill
passes, all the riders pass with it.
– Mark-up: when a bill is in committee and committee
members “mark it up” by altering it and adding
amendments to it.

9. What is a Legislature?
– Committee: Panels in each house that review bills
and study specific issues.
• Standing Committees are permanent. All members of
Congress must belong to a standing committee. These
have a “specialty” and all related bills go there first.
• Special or Select Committees are temporary. They form
to study a particular issue or problem.
• Joint Committees contain an equal number of
representatives from each house. They conduct
research and issue studies and reports.

10. What is a Legislature?
– Conference Committee: a temporary committee made
up of members of both houses to resolve differences
between versions of similar bills. The new
compromise bill they write must be approved by both
houses.
– “Pigeonhole” or “bottle up”: when a committee sets
a bill aside. Since this stops its progress, this is a way
to “kill” a bill.
– Motion to “table”: if approved by a majority vote,
“tabling” ends debate and stops the progress of
whatever it is that was tabled.

11. What is a Legislature?
– Quorum: minimum number of representatives
who must be present in order to conduct
business.
– Filibuster: to prevent the progress of a bill by
holding the floor with prolonged speaking. In the
US Congress, this is only possible in the Senate
(because the House has time limits on speaking).
– Cloture: a motion to limit debate, thereby ending
a filibuster. In the US Senate, a vote of three-fifths
(or 60 Senators) is needed to invoke cloture.

12. What is a Legislature?
– Veto: when the President returns a bill to Congress,
explaining why he will not sign it. Unless Congress can
muster up the 2/3 votes in both houses to override
the veto, a veto kills the bill.
– Pocket veto: The Constitution gives the President 10
days to consider a bill. If he does not sign the bill but
does not actively veto it, it becomes law without his
signature UNLESS Congress has adjourned, preventing
the bill’s return. In this case, the bill is “pocket
vetoed” and does not become law.

13. Gerrymandering

14. The US Congress
Representatives….shall be apportioned among the
several states which may be included within this Union,
according to their respective numbers…The actual
Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the
first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and
within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such
Manner as they shall by Law direct.
Article I, Section 2

15. The US Congress
• The US House of Representatives has 435
members. (This number was “frozen” in
1929.)
– Every 10 years, a census is taken. The results of
the census determine how many of the 435 House
seats each state is entitled to.
– Once that number is determined, the state
legislature divides the state into that number of
legislative districts.

16. California has the most US Representatives (53), followed by Texas
(36), and New York and Florida (27). Seven states have just 1.

17. North Carolina has 13 Congressional Districts. Each
district elects one representative.

18. The US Congress
• Gerrymandering: drawing the boundaries of a
voting district to make it more likely that a
party or group will win the election.
– Every ten years, each state legislature adjusts the
Congressional boundaries to reflect population
shifts within the state.
– The political party that controls the state
legislature at the time of “redistricting” has a big
advantage because it controls the process and can
draw the boundaries in deliberate ways.

19. The US Congress
• There are two main types of gerrymandering.
– Political gerrymandering is the drawing of
electoral district lines in a manner that favors one
political party at the expense of the other.
– Political gerrymandering is “legal” in that it is
rarely overturned by the Courts.
– Also, it is legal to draw district lines to protect
incumbents of both parties. (Incumbent = the
current office-holder)

21. The US Congress
• There are two main types of gerrymandering.
– Racial gerrymandering is the drawing of electoral
district lines so that racial minorities are under-
represented.
– Tactics include "packing" targeted voters into a
given district or "cracking" them to make targeted
voters a minority across all districts.

22. The US Congress
– Technically, election districts are supposed to be
“contiguous” and “compact.”
– After every redistricting, there are numerous
court challenges.
• Political gerrymandering is occasionally, but rarely,
overturned in the Courts.
• Racial gerrymandering violates the 14th Amendment
and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

23. The US Congress
– Gerrymandering is a practice that many people
would like to see eliminated.
• Reformers see gerrymandering as a form of political
corruption that undermines democracy.
• A number of states have imposed rules to reform the
process of redistricting so that gerrymandering is more
difficult.
• The John Tanner Fairness and Independence in
Redistricting Act was introduced in the 113th Congress.
It did not pass, but could become the basis for future
reform.