HOW CONGRESS WORKS

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress at the rally on the Mall, Washington DC, April 2006

The U.S. Congress has two chambers: the House (435 members) and the Senate (100 members). A regular bill becomes a law in the following way.

• One or more elected officials introduce the bill. The person that orginally introduces the bill is called the sponsor. The bill can be introduced simultaneously in both chambers, or it can be introduced only in one chamber.

• Once a bill is introduced, any member of the chamber where the bill was introduced can co-sponsor the bill. This basically means they sign on to the bill, voicing their support – and their constituents’ support – for passing this legislation. The more co-sponsors a bill has, the more support it has, and the faster it should move through the legislative process. That’s why it’s often important for you and your chapter to advocate for your elected officials to co-sponsor key pieces of legislation.

• The bill is assigned to the appropriate committee. In most cases, it is then assigned to the appropriate subcommittee. Because Congress has so many bills to consider, each chamber is divided into 20-25 committees, which cover everything from the Judiciary to Veterans’ Affairs, that consider relevant legislation according to the following process. The committees that we care about for Darfur are the Foreign Relations (Senate) / Foreign Affairs (House) Committees, and the Appropriations (spending) Committees in both chambers.

• The chair of the subcommittee schedules the bill for a hearing and a vote. Members of the subcommittee can help speed up this process by urging the chair to bring the bill to a vote. Once the bill passes the subcommittee by majority vote, it then moves on to full committee. So it’s important for us to lobby subcommittee members at this stage of the game.

• The same process happens in full committee - this is why we lobby the committee chair and committee members at this point.

• The bill then moves to the floor for a full vote. The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate schedule a bill for a vote. The Majority and Minority Whips inform the members of their party when the vote is taking place and rally up party votes for or against a bill. The bill must pass by majority vote.

• The same process must happen in the other chamber, if it hasn’t yet.

• Two different versions of the bill may pass in each chamber. If this is the case, a conference committee meets to resolve differences. This committee usually includes members of the original committee that considered the bill in each chamber. It is usually chaired by one of the committee chairs. The conference version of the bill that this committee writes must then pass by majority vote in each chamber.

• The bill then moves to the President, who must sign the bill into law.

• It’s up to us to hold our elected officials accountable and make sure that all passed legislation is also enforced.

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As you can see, different members of Congress are important at different stages of the game. It’s crucial for us to be strategic – to know who we’re targeting at any given time and why, what we want out of them, and how we can show them that it’s in their interest to do so.

Important Congressional Targets (110th Congress):

House

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
• Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
• Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC)
• Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)
• Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D-WI)
• Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations Chair Nita Lowey (D-NY)
• Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos (D-CA)
• Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Chair Don Payne (D-NJ)

Senate

• Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
• Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL)
• Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
• Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS)
• Appropriations Committee Chair Robert Byrd (D-WV)
• Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Affairs Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Joe Biden (D-DE)

Check out www.DarfurScores.org to see if your elected officials are making the grade on stopping genocide, and find out how to push them into action.