How a Bill Becomes a Law

How a Bill Becomes a Law Question to consider: To what extent is this an effective legislation process?

What you are doing this week… • You’ll be analyzing the process of how a bill becomes a law by diving in to the process itself • You’ll be breaking the process up into pieces and answer a series of questions to get you better familiar • You’ll also be looking at the Legislative Obstacles and analyzing the issues and challenges • By end you should be able to fill out a blank chart with all the major components in place • You will also be composing a paragraph answering the essential question using AT LEAST THREE pieces of evidence

By end of this process… • By the time we are done analyzing and breaking down the whole process you should be able to answer the following Essential Question with evidence: • Is this an effective legislative process?

Expectations for Whole Week Reading and Discussion Work Individual Work: • Silent when reading individually • Purposefully annotating where appropriate Conversation(s): • Focus on task with partner • Floor- One person at a time- raise hand with comment or question

Let’s start with the classic… • We’re watching “How a Bill Becomes a Law” • Take notice to the process the video explains • From your observations… • How realistic is this? • Do you notice any challenges or realities the video does not take into account? School House Rocks SNL Parody Version (Executive Order)

Sausage Making • The legislative process has often been equated to the sausage making process…its nasty and gross, but the result is tasty • Hog Killiing • Wurstkuche Sausage Making

Some things to know… • HR 447 • House Resolution • SB 109 • Senate Bill • House Legislation • THE HOPPER

Before We Jump In… • In order for you to understand and evaluate this process, it is important for you to see what the finished product looks like… • In front of you is a sample of a bill from the HOR Take the next 3 mins to do the following: • What issue is this bill addressing? • What do you notice about the language? • Take 2 mins to talk with your cohort… • Bringing out to the floor…

Now the process…Round 1 • Mark Up • Rules Committee • Conference Committee • Reconcile • Hearings • Provisions • Take a look at the Flow Chart of the process…we’re going through this document a few times • Round 1: Terms Need to know • Read through the chart and pick out the following terms and make sure you know what they mean • 5mins to discuss w/ cohort

Round 2…First read • Take 3mins by yourself to just read through the chart • Annotate, highlight, underline- make whatever notes work for you on anything that seems important, questions, confusions • Now, talk to person(s) next to you and walk each other through what you observed • On initial observation- Does this chart demonstrate an EFFECTIVE legislative process?

Round 3- Structure • This time you’re focusing on how this is put together… • Take 3 mins to highlight, annotate, take notes differences between HOR/Senate • Take 2 mins to talk to person-check in with each other • Bringing this out to the floor…

Round 4- Roles… • Who are the leaders? • Speaker of the House • Majority Leader • Minority Leader • Whip(s) • Are there other leaders we are forgetting? • Take 4mins to answer the following questions in your cohort: • How and where can leadership have an influence on the process? Bringing this out to the floor

Round 5- Language… • Take 4 mins to answer the following in cohorts: • How are the words “reconcile”, “agreement”, & “compromise” related in the conference committee section? • What purpose do these words serve? Final floor reporting…

Wrapping up… • Now let’s make sure you know this process well…giving it a shot… • You now have a blank flow chart of the process… • Without looking at the completed chart • Complete the chart using a combination of your own words and the terms from the beginning and let’s see how comfortable you are with this process….

Questions, concerns, prayers? From this initial work today on this part of the process… How would you respond to the original question posed today…? • To what extent is this an effective legislation process? Explain your thought process *Note- This is a draft writing piece- you may or may not revise this after next session

Expectations for Today Reading and Discussion Work Individual Work: • Silent when reading individually • Purposefully annotating where appropriate Conversation(s): • Focus on task with partner • Floor- One person at a time- raise hand with comment or question

Legislative Obstacles… • In Chapter 11, go to section labeled “Legislative Obstacles”-Page 336-337 • There you will see an obstacle course where legislation can fail at one of these stages • Let’s read opening lines together for context • Now take 2 mins to read the entire section by yourself • Take 1 min to check in with partner • Bringing out to floor for questions…

Read 1- Vocab/Terms • Read through the 23 steps and pick out any terms that may be confusing or not entirely clear- highlight them –take 2 mins • Check in with person next to you to clear up any of these terms- 1 min • Out to the floor…

Read Two-The Committee • On this read, see if you can make some conclusions about the committee system…take 4 mins • How does the committee process influence the legislative obstacle course? Have at least two examples from the steps • Out to the floor…

Read 3- Partisanship & Leadership • Last read…take 4 mins to find how leadership pushes the partisanship in the process… • How is leadership helping to kill bills? • Find how/where partisanship is visible in this process? • Out to the floor…

How a Bill Becomes a Law PBS • Now that we have analyzed this whole process-let’s see if you can understand the process better • PBS-Crash Course How a Bill Becomes a Law

Questions, concerns, prayers? Are you ready to respond to the essential question again? Can you make an educated assessment now about our legislative process? Is this an effective legislative process? Use at least 3-4 pieces of evidence to support your thought process

How a Bill Becomes a Law