Passing the bill in House of Representatives

Question

A member of the House of Representatives has introduced a piece of legislation to raise the minimum wage. The legislation is stalled in committee. The representative believes that, if the legislation can reach the floor, it will more than likely pass.

(A) Identify an action that the representative can take to attempt to move the bill to the floor.

(B) In the context of the scenario, explain how the action described in part A would affect the representative’s relationship with congressional leadership.

(C) In the context of the scenario, explain how the interaction between the member of Congress and congressional leadership is affected by party affiliation.

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Answer 1

The technical mechanism for pulling a bill from committee without a recommendation is called a discharge petition. If the bill has been in committee for at least 30 days, any member can submit a petition to move the bill to the floor for consideration. A member can also submit a petition to the Rules Committee to have a bill considered on the floor after it has been reported out of committee for seven days (to prevent leadership from refusing to call a final vote on a bill that they don't like).

Signatures on discharge petitions are public, so everybody knows who the rebels are. Since committee chairs control the schedule of hearings and votes in their committees, signing a discharge petition might well lead to other bills being held up in committee in retaliation. The special rule procedure is a direct defiance of house leadership, who control which committees a member sits on. Thus, it is even more dangerous. But this procedure does give regular members some ability to bypass leadership and take up popular measures over their objection.