sacdon

Help me out here please. The Senate passed the Covid relief bill and now it goes to the House. That's backwards from what I remember from high school, which was bills go to the House first. So what am I missing?

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

There were some changes from the original house version that need to be passed by the house.

sacdon

Thank you.

pendennis

While the "relief" bill originated in the House as an appropriations bill, as specified in the Constitution, there is what's called "reconciliation" after the Senate considers and amends the original bill. After the reconciliation procedure is started, once the Senate passes the amended bill, the House must vote up or down on it. Reconciliation happens all the time with appropriation bills.

This bill, even though it drops a lot of what House members wanted, will be guaranteed passage there. If the House were to vote down the amended bill, the process has to start all over.

The House knew, when they passed the original bill, it would never be approved as is in the Senate. The Senate parliamentarian ruled that the Federal minimum wage provision would never pass muster in the Senate. Sure enough they amended the bill, but the deal is already done. Approval of the amended bill is more, or less, pro forma.

It's really an expedient, since if the House were to vote down the amended bill, it would start another merry-go-round legislatively.

Urnst Loc: Brownsville, Texas

You should be a professor of political science. Thanks for your answer.

Urnst Loc: Brownsville, Texas

I intended to direct my post to you.

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

Either the Senate or the House can create a bill. Whichever chamber creates it votes on it first. If it passes, it goes to the other chamber for a vote. A few things things can happen when a bill is sent to the other chamber.
1) The Senate Majority Leader or Speaker of the House can ignore the bill and let it die without a vote. This is a regular occurrence when the two chambers are controlled by opposing parties.
If a vote is allowed and a vote is made, this is what happens:
2) The bill can be defeated by a simple majority. More accurately, it can fail to pass by not receiving a majority, which is 51 in the Senate or 218 votes in the House.
3) The bill can pass with a simple majority of 51 votes in the Senate* or 218 votes in the House.
4) When a bill is received from the other chamber, the second chamber often will amend it before voting on it. When this happens, a vote is taken in the chamber that amended the bill. If it passes, the bill is sent back to the original chamber, the one that wrote the bill, for a new vote. Makes sense, because the amended bill is not the same as the one that was voted on.

After both chambers finally vote to affirm a bill with any and all amendments, the bill is sent to the President for his signature. If the President signs the bill it becomes law. If he doesn't, the bill dies. And if the President wants to send a message, he will veto the bill, killing it and sending it back to Congress for reconsideration.

The recent Covid bill was created in the House. From there it went to the Senate, which amended the bill. A vote was had that resulted in a 50-50 tie. This is uncommon to possibly rare, but our Constitution provides a means of resolution: The Senate President, who is the Vice President of the United States, casts the tiebreaking vote. VP Harris did just that, allowing the Covid bill to pass with a partisan 51-50 vote.

Because the Senate amended the bill, it must again be considered by the House, which is expected to pass the bill. The bill will then be sent to President Biden for his signature before it becomes law.

It should be noted that there cannot be a majority tie in the House with an odd number of members.

Civics 101 class dismissed. Now go out and shoot something.

pendennis

Since the COVID bill has revenue and appropriations elements to it, it must originate in the House. There can't be a "parallel" bill started in the Senate.

There is a difference.



The final passage of the COVID bill was 50-49 in favor of passage and return to the House with amendments. A lone Republican Senator was absent owing to a death in his family. The vote to which you refer was an early test vote. Also, there can be no filibuster in the Senate on revenue bills, only up or down votes on amendments and final passage (part of the Senate's rules).

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Exactly. Appropriation bills must originate in the house. I’m guessing you were paying attention in US government/civics classes.

pendennis

In addition, I minored in political science in college. It was a great adjunct to my major of finance/economics.

dnaylor48 Loc: Charles Town, WV

The Affordable Care Act contained appropriations and originated in the senate, passed and sent to the house, passed and signed by Obama. SCOTUS ruled it constitutional.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

The bill that became the ACA, H.R. 3590, originated in the House as the Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009. It was gutted by the Senate and replaced with the ACA before being passed and sent back to the House for final passage.

Dannj

“Civics 101 class dismissed. Now go out and shoot something.”[/quote]

Great example of why context matters😳

ad9mac

The Bill is a relief for California and New York primarily. Paying off their maleficence spending.
We got 'relieved ' on..

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

So if the House makes changes it must go back to the Senate.