The Committee System and Committee Markups

• Understand why the drafting of legislation is strategic to its survival
• Learn how key legislative decisions are made during markups
• Vehicles for markup
• Committee and chamber markup rules
• Committee Reports

Mastering Legislative Procedures: A Member's Perspective

The House Rules Committee: Gatekeeper to the Floor

• Briefly review the history of the Rules Committee, its power, and its role in recent Congresses
• Find out how the resolutions or "rules" granted by the Rules Committee structure floor debate and amendment opportunities
• Learn the nuances and procedural implications of the different types of "rules" by walking through the common types: open, modified, closed
• Examine the procedures that govern floor consideration of the "rule"
• Understand the stages when the House resolves into and rises from the Committee of the Whole

• Understand the specific rules that govern the amendment process and voting
• Examine the different types, forms and degrees of amendments
• Learn the strategic importance of knowing when to offer an amendment
• Consider the complexities of the "germaneness rule"
• Walk through a real-life example of the House amending process

The Dynamics of the U.S. Senate

• Learn how the Senate's rules are designed to slow down or even defer, action on legislation by granting enormous parliamentary powers to individual senators
• Analyze how legislating in the Senate differs from legislating in the House
• Discuss the current Congress in terms of political dynamics, leadership, and the role of partisanship

Scheduling and Calling Up Bills on the Senate Floor

• Examine what takes place during the various stages of a typical day on the Senate floor
• Take a behind-the-scenes look at the strategies and factors involved in scheduling legislation for Senate floor action including the interaction between the majority and minority leaders, the competing interests of senators, and procedural factors
• Compare and contrast the scheduling of minor versus major legislation
• Analyze the role of unanimous consent and other measures for bringing bills to the floor
• Learn about the practice of placing a "hold" on legislation

• Study the sequence of floor procedures that occurs after a bill has been scheduled and called up for consideration on the floor
• Discuss the importance of the floor manager's role
• Learn the rules pertaining to filibusters, cloture, and post-cloture filibusters
• Examine voting procedures, and the strategies behind the use of motions to table, reconsider, and recommit

• Examine the amendment process in the Senate
• Learn to distinguish different types, classes and degrees of amendments
• Discuss the modification, withdrawal and disposition of amendments
• Understand how members' strategies are influenced by the order in which amendments are voted on

• Learn how differences between the House and Senate are solved via amendments between the houses, and the advantages of using this process
• Examine how conference committees have changed as Congress has changed, i.e. growth of subcommittee power, the rise of omnibus bills, use of multiple referrals
• Discuss pre-conference maneuvering in the House and Senate and the key factors that determine whether a bill does or does not go to conference
• Distinguish between House and Senate procedures for going to conference, and the conferee selection process
• Examine the political and strategic role of instructing conferees before the conference committee meets

• Discuss the selection and the role of the conference committee chairman, how the meeting location influences the dynamics of the conference committee, the different styles of conference committees, and how subconferences are used to streamline the work of large conference committees
• Examine the scope of what the conferees may debate, negotiating strategies used by conferees during the bargaining process, and how institutional differences--particularly the issue of germaneness--impact the bargaining process
• Review the role of the committee staff, other members of Congress, the executive branch, and lobbyists in this final stage of the legislative process

• Formulating and implementing political lobbying strategies
• Sponsors, champions, and handlers
• What federal agencies need to know
• When to engage in the legislative process

• Using a major piece of legislation as a case study, the faculty will walk participants through the progress of a bill from introduction to presidential signature.