Glossary

Bill or Legislation
Every change in law or new law that a particular member wants to propose is offered in a written form called a bill. This is a specific written document that dictates exactly what provisions of law would need to be changed in order to make the policy change that is being sought. When the bill is introduced, it is given a number and assigned to a specific committee for debate and approval. Usually, far more bills are introduced than laws enacted. For example in the 104th Congress, 6,808 bills were introduced in the House and Senate and only 333 new laws were enacted. Bills that start with “H.R.” or “S” (H.R. 123 or S. 123, for example) are proposals that would make an actual change in law and must be voted upon by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President before being enacted.

Joint Resolutions
Proposals that start with “HJRes” or “SJRes” are joint resolutions that also must be voted upon by the House and the Senate and signed by the President. The only difference between bills and joint resolutions is that the latter are usually focused on one specific policy question or are constitutional amendments.

Concurrent Resolutions
Concurrent Resolutions are introduced in either the House or the Senate and start with “HConRes” or “SConRes.” These resolutions must be passed by both the House and Senate, but do not have the force of law.  So, they do not have to be signed by the President. In general, they deal with internal congressional issues, like the timing for an adjournment or expressing congressional opinion on various policy matters.

Chairman
A Chairman or chairwoman is the member who leads a committee. This person is always a member of the majority party. Both full committees and subcommittees have chairs. Chairmen or chairwomen, working with the party leadership, determine what bills they will consider. They cannot consider all the bills that are introduced in a given session.

A “Congress” vs. the U.S. Congress
Every two-year period for which representatives are elected to serve is numbered and referred to as a “Congress.” For example, the two-year period from 1997 to 1998 was the 105th Congress. Members who were elected or reelected in November 1996 served during this time. Likewise, the two-year period from 1995 to 1996 was the 104th Congress. These designations apply to both the House and Senate even though not all individual senators are up for reelection every two-years. The entire organization is called the U.S. Congress.

Co-sponsor
Once one member introduces a bill, other members may show their support by putting their names on the bill as a co-sponsor. In general, a bill’s sponsor wants as many cosponsors for the bill as possible to give the bill a greater likelihood of being passed.

Floor or Chamber
Literally, the place where members of the House or Senate come together to debate bills. When a bill is “on the floor” it means that the bill is being actively considered, or debated, by the House or Senate membership. When a bill is “sent to the floor” it means that the bill will be considered by the members.

Party Leadership or Leadership
Each party, whether the minority or the majority, has a small cadre of members who have been elected by their colleagues to assume responsibility for leading the party. These members are generally very powerful, especially the majority leadership, because they set the agenda and decide which bills (see below) will be considered by the entire House or Senate membership. Some of the positions in the leadership are as follows:

The House of Representatives: Speaker (the head of the majority party); Minority Leader (the head of the minority party); Majority Leader (second to the Speaker in the majority party); Majority and Minority Whips (focused on “whipping” the membership or convincing them to support the party agenda during votes).

The Senate: President of the Senate (under the Constitution, this office is held by the Vice President); President Pro Tempore (a senator designated by the president of the Senate to act in his or her place); Majority Leader (leads the majority party in the Senate); Minority Leader (leads the minority party in the Senate).

A “Session”
Each Congress is divided into two one-year periods called sessions. The first year of a Congress is the first session and the second year of a Congress in the second session.

 

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