Thanks for all of this! Here’s a response to your point about committees.
I agree that the committee process is extremely important. It’s especially important if you’re trying to push forward specific legislation.
For people who aren’t familiar with committees or why they’re important, here’s a quick summary of my current understanding (there may be a few mistakes):
When a bill gets introduced in the House or the Senate, it gets sent to a committee. The decision is made by the Speaker of the House or the priding officer in the Senate. In practice, however, they often defer to a non-partisan “parliamentarian” who specializes in figuring out which committee would be most appropriate. My impression is that this process is actually pretty legitimate and non-partisan in most cases(?).
It takes some degree of skill to be able to predict which committee(s) a bill is most likely to be referred to. Some bills are obvious (like an agriculture bill will go to an agriculture committee). In my opinion, artificial intelligence bills are often harder to predict. There is obviously no “AI committee”, and AI stuff can be argued to affect multiple areas. With all that in mind, I think it’s not too hard to narrow things down to ~1-3 likely committees in the House and ~1-3 likely committees in the Senate.
The most influential person in the committee is the committee chair. The committee chair is the highest-ranking member from the majority party (so in the House, all the committee chairs are currently Republicans; in the Senate, all the committee chairs are currently Democrats).
A bill cannot be brought to the House floor or the Senate floor (cannot be properly debated or voted on) until it has gone through committee. The committee is responsible for finalizing the text of the bill and then voting on whether or not they want the bill to advance to the chamber (House or Senate).
The committee chair typically has a lot of influence over the committee. The committee chair determines which bills get discussed in committee, for how long, etc. Also, committee chairs usually have a lot of “soft power”– members of Congress want to be in good standing with committee chairs. This means that committee chairs often have the ability to prevent certain legislation from getting out of committee.
If you’re trying to get legislation passed, it’s ideal to have the committee chair think favorably of that piece of legislation.
It’s also important to have at least one person on the committee as someone who is willing to “champion” the bill. This means they view the bill as a priority & be willing to say “hey, committee, I really think we should be talking about bill X.” A lot of bills die in committee because they were simply never prioritized.
If the committee chair brings the bill to a vote, and the majority of committee members vote in favor of the bill moving to the chamber, the bill can be discussed in the full chamber. Party leadership (Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, etc.) typically play the most influential role in deciding which bills get discussed or voted on in the chambers.
Sometimes, bills get referred to multiple committees. This generally seems like “bad news” from the perspective of getting the bill passed, because it means that the bill has to get out of multiple committees. (Any single committee could essentially prevent the bill from being discussed in the chamber).
(If any readers are familiar with the committee process, please feel free to add more info or correct me if I’ve said anything inaccurate.)
Thanks for all of this! Here’s a response to your point about committees.
I agree that the committee process is extremely important. It’s especially important if you’re trying to push forward specific legislation.
For people who aren’t familiar with committees or why they’re important, here’s a quick summary of my current understanding (there may be a few mistakes):
When a bill gets introduced in the House or the Senate, it gets sent to a committee. The decision is made by the Speaker of the House or the priding officer in the Senate. In practice, however, they often defer to a non-partisan “parliamentarian” who specializes in figuring out which committee would be most appropriate. My impression is that this process is actually pretty legitimate and non-partisan in most cases(?).
It takes some degree of skill to be able to predict which committee(s) a bill is most likely to be referred to. Some bills are obvious (like an agriculture bill will go to an agriculture committee). In my opinion, artificial intelligence bills are often harder to predict. There is obviously no “AI committee”, and AI stuff can be argued to affect multiple areas. With all that in mind, I think it’s not too hard to narrow things down to ~1-3 likely committees in the House and ~1-3 likely committees in the Senate.
The most influential person in the committee is the committee chair. The committee chair is the highest-ranking member from the majority party (so in the House, all the committee chairs are currently Republicans; in the Senate, all the committee chairs are currently Democrats).
A bill cannot be brought to the House floor or the Senate floor (cannot be properly debated or voted on) until it has gone through committee. The committee is responsible for finalizing the text of the bill and then voting on whether or not they want the bill to advance to the chamber (House or Senate).
The committee chair typically has a lot of influence over the committee. The committee chair determines which bills get discussed in committee, for how long, etc. Also, committee chairs usually have a lot of “soft power”– members of Congress want to be in good standing with committee chairs. This means that committee chairs often have the ability to prevent certain legislation from getting out of committee.
If you’re trying to get legislation passed, it’s ideal to have the committee chair think favorably of that piece of legislation.
It’s also important to have at least one person on the committee as someone who is willing to “champion” the bill. This means they view the bill as a priority & be willing to say “hey, committee, I really think we should be talking about bill X.” A lot of bills die in committee because they were simply never prioritized.
If the committee chair brings the bill to a vote, and the majority of committee members vote in favor of the bill moving to the chamber, the bill can be discussed in the full chamber. Party leadership (Speaker of the House, Senate Majority Leader, etc.) typically play the most influential role in deciding which bills get discussed or voted on in the chambers.
Sometimes, bills get referred to multiple committees. This generally seems like “bad news” from the perspective of getting the bill passed, because it means that the bill has to get out of multiple committees. (Any single committee could essentially prevent the bill from being discussed in the chamber).
(If any readers are familiar with the committee process, please feel free to add more info or correct me if I’ve said anything inaccurate.)