Student Handout #1

Passing a Bill through Congress

Ideas for a bill can come from anyone. Only members of Congress can officially
introduce a bill.

THE HOUSE THE SENATE

All bills, including spending bills, can be Any bills, except spending bills, can be
introduced in the House. introduced in the Senate.

COMMITTEE WORK COMMITTEE WORK

Bills are assigned to a committee Bills are assigned to a committee
Hearings are held to inform members Hearings are held to inform members
Bills are marked up or amended and Bills are marked up or amended and
then passed to the floor or dropped then passed to the floor or dropped

FLOOR ACTION FLOOR ACTION

House members debate the bill.
Time for debate is limited.
Senate members debate the bill.
Time for debate is not restricted.
Senators can filibuster to stall passage.
Filibusters can be stopped with a
cloture vote of 2/3rds or 60 votes.

After a bill passes either chamber, it must go to the other and

follow the same procedure. Any differences between the House
and Senate versions are reconciled in a Conference Committee.

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Once a bill passes both houses of Congress, it goes before a Conference Committee to
reconcile any differences. If necessary, another vote is taken in both chambers.

PRESIDENT
The bill is sent to the President for signature to become law or vetoed. If the
bill is vetoed, it goes back to Congress which can either accept the veto and
make changes or try to override it with a 2/3rds majority of both Chambers.
 Student Handout #2

Deal or No Deal?
Background: Obamas Goals for Health Care Reform
When Barack Obama ran for president, he campaigned to reform health care and make
health insurance available and affordable for all Americans. He proposed changing some
of the industries policies that he believed limited peoples access to health care, such as
denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, restrictions on allowing people
to keep their insurance when they change or lose their jobs, and guaranteed issue or
eligibility to enroll a health insurance plan.

Candidate Obama promised to reduce the long-term growth of health care costs for
businesses, individuals and the government. He said he would protect families from
bankruptcy or massive debt and having to choose between carrying adequate health
care and paying their bills. He pledged to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and make
medications more affordable. He also supported the creation of a public option, a
government-run health plan that would compete with private insurers to keep health care
plans affordable.

To accomplish these goals, the president knew he would have to gain support from the
health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. He decided to include
them in the process and avoid having them campaign against any reform.

Activity Directions: In your small group, review the deal you were assigned and discuss
the related questions. Then be prepared to share your recommendations with the class.
 Deal # 1 Health Insurance Industry Proposal: The health insurance industry
understands the American public is demanding change in health care. The industry has
publicly stated that it is committed to change and restructuring the way health care is
administered in the country. It is committed to helping the Obama administration arrive at
a workable solution. Here is what the health insurance industry proposes:

It supports universal health care coverage. To ensure universal coverage, the health
insurance industry proposes a mandate in the bill that all people must buy health
insurance. That way, the pool of participants will be large enough to offer lower, more
affordable premiums per customer through a balance of high-risk and low-risk clients.
The mandate will also help to eliminate the provision on denying coverage due to pre-
existing conditions.

The industry rejects a public optiona government-administered health care plan that
provides health care coverage for individuals or companies that cannot afford to buy
private health care coverage. The industry believes this proposal is counterproductive. If
allowed, the government could always offer lower premiums than the for-profit
companies. Small businesses or individuals might feel compelled to drop their coverage
to save money and opt out of private health care coverage.

The industry will support health care legislation only if these two conditions are met.
Otherwise it will campaign against it.

Discuss the following questions:

Do you feel the health insurance industry is being reasonable in proposing this
compromise in light of the promises it made to work with the Obama administration?

List the advantages and disadvantages of this proposal in meeting the Obama
administrations goals.

If the Obama administration were to accept this proposal, how would it reconcile its
decision to its political base in light of Obamas promise to create a public option during
the election campaign? How important is it for the administration to remain true to
Obamas campaign promises when passing such a complex bill?

Do you recommend that the Obama administration agree to this proposal? Explain your
reasons.
 Deal # 2 Pharmaceutical Industry Proposal: During Barack Obamas presidential
campaign, he said he wanted to put an end to what he described as an old Washington
political culture of playing favorites and making backroom deals. He was highly critical of
the deals made in passing the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill in 2003, which did not
compel drug companies to reduce their prices and prevented citizens from getting less
expensive medications from Canada. Over the next five years, drug company profits
skyrocketed. With health care reform, President Obama said he wanted to find a way to
make prescription drugs more affordable. The pharmaceutical industry lobby, PhRMA
(Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), understood there was a lot of
momentum behind reform and wanted to get in early and make a deal.

PhRMA proposed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens
over 10 years. This would include:
Increasing the Medicaid rebate from 15 to 23 percent, cutting medication costs for low-
income individuals
Allowing medication to be sold to Medicare patients at a 50 percent discount
Help defray governments costs of administering the programs, but not to exceed the $80
billion limit

In exchange, the Obama administration would agree to:

Oppose any congressional effort to demand additional savings from the pharmaceutical
industry beyond the $80 billion allotted in the deal
Prohibit the importation of less costly foreign drugs or generic drugs identical to the
drugs sold by the pharmaceutical industry in America
Reject any legislation that would give the government the authority to negotiate lower
prices for drugs
Oppose moving more expensive Medicare Part B medications to Medicare Part D, which
offers lower prices for patients

Implied in all this was a threat that if the government didnt agree to the deal, the
pharmaceutical industry had a war chest of $150 million to scuttle the health care
reform bill with attack ads.

Discuss the following questions:

Why do you think the pharmaceutical industry made such a proposal?

List the advantages and disadvantages of this proposal in meeting the Obama
administrations goals. Will this plan benefit the American people? If so, how? If not, why
not?
If the Obama administration were to accept this proposal, how can it reconcile this to its
political base in light of what Obama promised during the election campaign? Why would
that be important to the administration?
Do you recommend that the Obama administration agree to this proposal? Explain your
reasons.
 FRONTLINE: OBAMAS DEAL (2012)
April 1, 2014

Politics Defined

For many people, the word politics is derogatory. To call others political is to accuse
them of being manipulative and self-serving. Scholars, however, tend to view politics in
more neutral terms. Following are two famous definitions of politics.
According to Harold D. Lasswell (1938), politics is who gets what, when, and how.
According to David Easton (1953), politics is the authoritative allocation of values.

Both definitions say the same thing: All groups must have some way to make collective
decisions, and politics is the process of making those decisions. Politics is the process of
coming to some definitive understanding of who is going to get what or whose values
everyone is going to live by. Because individuals often disagree about who should get what
or whose values should be binding on everyone, politics is a process of conflict
management and resolution: it is a natural outcome of human interaction, not just
something in which politicians and governments engage.

Excerpt From: Smith, Kevin B. Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political
Science. iBooks.

Public Policy

Public policy is nothing less than the business of translating the promise of democracy into
the performance of democracy. Public policy encompasses the demands and expectations
that citizens place on government and the government's response to these demands and
expectations in the form of laws and public programs.

Excerpt From: Smith, Kevin B. Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political
Science. iBooks.

Stages of the Public Policymaking Process

1. Agenda setting, which produces the list of issues and problems the government will pay
attention to
2. Policy formulation and adoption, wherein the government considers the various
alternatives to the issue at hand and formally approves a particular alternative
3. Policy implementation, in which the government translates the approved alternative into
action
4. Policy evaluation, wherein government and nongovernment actors assess the successes
and problems of public policies (Ripley 1988, 4855)

Excerpt From: Smith, Kevin B. Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political
Science. iBooks.
 How It Works
PASSING LEGISLATION: THE CONVENTIONAL METHOD
SPEAKER OF HOUSE PRESIDENT OF SENATE
RECEIVES BILL RECEIVES BILL

COMMITTEE * COMMITTEE *

SUBCOMMITTEE * SUBCOMMITTEE *

RULES MA JORITY
COMMITTEE * LEADER

HOUSE FLOOR * HOUSE BILL SENATE BILL SENATE FLOOR *

HOUSE AMENDS SENATE AMENDS

SENATE BILL* HOUSE BILL*

HOUSE FLOOR SENATE FLOOR

CONFERENCE
COMMITTEE *

CONFERENCE
REPORT*

HOUSE APPROVES ADOPTION BY SENATE APPROVES

SENATE AMENDMENT BOTH HOUSES HOUSE AMENDMENT

WHITE HOUSE

VETO APPROVE

HOUSE AND SENATE FLOOR

VETO OVERRIDE

LAW

*Points at which a bill can be amended.

Points at which a bill can die.
 How It Works
DEVIATIONS FROM THE CONVENTIONAL METHOD: AN EXAMPLE
ACA
CONVENTIONAL STEPS THE 2010 AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA)
after a bill is introduced. provides an example of how passing legislation
(See the preceding page.) often deviates from the conventional method.

A committee and a In the House, 5 committees

subcommittee revise 3 committees worked on the
the bill crafted the bill. Senate version.

After a deadlock between

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
assumed a central role
in shaping the final bill,
adding things that werent
in the committee version.
two committees, Majority
Leader Harry Reid pushed
through a merged version
of the bill, adding things
that werent in the
committee version.

President Obama was intensely involved.

The White House held daily meetings
with the committees.

Floor action Floor action Floor action

Conference committee No conference committee. Instead, committee

reconciles House and leaders, White House staff, and party leadership
Senate versions. negotiated the details of the bill.

Adoption of final bill by The Senate version of the That reconciliation bill was
both House and Senate bill was passed by the then passed by the Senate.
House, but then the House
also passed a separate
reconciliation bill that
included many amendments
to the Senate version.

ACA
President signs bill into law. President Obama signed the ACA into law.

1 A conference committees job is to 2 One way the passage of the ACA differed from
the conventional process is that
POP a draft an original bill.
b determine whether a bill should be a committees were not involved.

QUIZ! considered by Congress.

c determine whether a bill is constitutional.
d reconcile differences between House and
Senate versions of a bill.
Answers: 1.d; 2.b e convince the president to sign the bill.
b President Obama and party leaders were
directly involved in shaping the bill.
c no floor action took place.
d only one house voted on the bill.
e the president signed it into law.