Introducing a House Bill or Resolution
Released: 2019-01-31T00:00:00

Developing Ideas for Legislation

"Ideas can come from anywhere," a scholar of American politics once wrote. To be sure, ideas and recommendations for legislation come from a wide variety of sources, such as individual Representatives; committees and other House working groups; legislative staff; party and chamber leaders; executive branch agencies and the White House; states and localities; members of the media; citizens; and interest groups. Any or all of these individuals or entities may participate in drafting legislation, but only a Member of Congress may formally introduce legislation. Some common considerations taken into account when drafting a bill include the following:

What problem does the bill seek to address? Understanding the source of a problem is necessary in order to properly address it. An abundance of information is available to Members in the form of reports, studies, and presentations offered by a wide range of individuals, groups, and organizations, including CRS. Soliciting expert testimony in the context of a committee hearing is another common method by which the House gathers relevant information for use in policymaking. To what committee(s) is it likely to be referred? Committee referral can matter because one committee might be especially receptive to the proposed legislation in comparison to another committee. Members may also prefer that their bill be referred to a committee on which they serve in order to ensure their continued involvement at the committee stage of proceedings. Will the bill attract cosponsors? Cosponsorship conveys a Member's support for a measure, so bills that attract many cosponsors could be seen as enjoying broad support within the chamber. A measure with many cosponsors, especially if they include committee and party leaders, could encourage the relevant committee chair to take some action on the legislation, such as hold hearings on it. Does it have bipartisan appeal? Building a coalition of support for a proposal can take time, and some amount of bipartisan cooperation may be required to secure final passage. Measures that are limited in scope but have broad bipartisan appeal are often brought to the House floor under suspension of the rules, a parliamentary procedure that limits debate and amendment and requires a supermajority vote of two-thirds for a measure to pass. What are the budgetary implications? The House places a number of restrictions on legislation with budgetary consequences. For instance, if a proposal adds to the federal deficit, it may be subject to a point of order on the chamber floor for violating congressional budget rules (many of which are codified in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974). Support for a measure may also hinge on how its costs are paid for. Members may agree about the merits of a bill but disagree with how its provisions are funded. Should companion legislation be introduced in the Senate? To become law, a bill or joint resolution must pass both houses of Congress in identical form (the same text and bill number) and be signed by the President. For this reason, House sponsors sometimes encourage allies in the Senate to introduce identical or similarly worded legislation to expedite bicameral consideration. Companion bills might also attract wider public and Member attention to the issues addressed in the legislation. Is the measure best introduced at the beginning, in the middle, or toward the end of a Congress? Timing the introduction of a measure can be important. Comprehensive legislation is likely to require a great deal of time to work through, both in committee and on the floor. An early introduction will give the House more time to examine the measure's provisions. Advantage might also be gained by being the first to address an issue. Those who move first tend to attract media attention and may be seen by their colleagues as exercising leadership in that particular policy area.

Strategic delay is another option. This approach might provide more time for an individual or committee to study the issue and build support for a preferred solution. To be sure, many bills do not follow a linear (or "regular order") legislative process—introduction, consideration in committee, and arrival on the floor for further debate and amendment. For example, a legislative proposal that had languished in committee might suddenly be taken up because it deals with an unfolding crisis or emergency.

Drafting Legislation

There is no House rule that introduced bills and resolutions must be prepared by the House Office of the Legislative Counsel, but the office plays an important role by providing Members and staff, at their request, with drafts of legislation. Use of the office by Members and staff is nearly universal. Its staff attorneys are both subject matter specialists and experts in legislative drafting, and they focus almost exclusively on policy issues within their areas of expertise. Legislative attorneys are often assigned to serve a specific committee or committees as a kind of nonpartisan, shared staff, and they work closely with committee members and staff to ensure that the bill's language and form matches the intent of its sponsor and adheres to drafting rules and linguistic traditions of the House.

Several drafts may be required before a measure is ready for formal introduction. Those drafting legislation may seek assistance from the Office of the Legislative Counsel at any stage. All communications with the office are treated as confidential. The office is located in Room 337 of the Ford House Office Building and can be reached at extension 5-6060 or by sending an email request to legcoun@mail.house.gov.

Following introduction, the Speaker refers legislation to the appropriate committee(s) based primarily on how its contents align with the subject matter jurisdictions of committees established in clause 1 of House Rule X. According to clause 2 of House Rule XII, the Speaker shall refer legislation

[I]n such a manner as to ensure to the maximum extent feasible that each committee that has jurisdiction under clause 1 of rule X over the subject matter of a provision thereof may consider such provision and report to the House thereon.

The Office of the Parliamentarian advises the Speaker on committee referrals. In practice, the Parliamentarian has been delegated the responsibility for committee referrals. Representatives and staff involved in drafting legislation may consult the Office of the Parliamentarian regarding the committee(s) to which their draft measure might be referred. The office is located in Room H-209 of the Capitol (5-7373).

Introducing a Bill or Resolution

The formal procedures that govern the introduction of legislation are few and are found in House Rule XII. "The system for introducing measures in the House is a relatively free and open one," wrote former House Parliamentarian William Holmes Brown. House rules do not limit the number of bills a Member may introduce. Members may introduce legislation for any number of reasons, and they may do so on behalf of another individual, entity, or group "by request." Between 1973 and 2018, Members introduced an average of about 20 bills and resolutions each per Congress. Statistics on introduced measures are presented in Table 1 .

When a Representative has determined that a bill or resolution is ready for introduction, it is placed in the box, or "hopper," at the bill clerk's desk on the chamber floor when the House is in session, including a "pro forma" session. The hopper is pictured in Figure 1 . The sponsor must sign the measure and attach the names of any original cosponsors on a form provided by the Clerk's office, which is located in Room H-154 of the Capitol Building (5-7000). Cosponsors do not sign the bill. Under the Speaker's announced policies of the 116 th Congress (2019-2020), sponsors are "encouraged" to obtain original signatures from cosponsors prior to submitting a cosponsorship form.

The bill as drafted by legislative counsel leaves space both for the insertion of a bill number, which is assigned chronologically based on the date of introduction, and for the Parliamentarian's office to note the committee(s) to which the measure was referred. A Member need not seek recognition from the chamber's presiding officer in order to introduce a measure. Following introduction, Members often summarize the purpose and merits of their proposal in a statement published in the "Extension of Remarks" section of the Congressional Record .

Since the 112 th Congress, House rules have required Members to provide at the time of introduction a statement of constitutional authority indicating why Congress has the authority to enact the proposed bill or joint resolution. The bill clerk does not accept a bill or joint resolution for introduction that lacks a constitutional authority statement. Clause 7(c) of Rule XII establishes that the statement must be as "specific as practicable," and must be attached to the bill when it is dropped in the hopper for introduction. If no such statement is provided, then the measure will be returned to its sponsor. A point of order cannot be lodged against a bill based on the content of a constitutional authority statement.

A sponsor may not reclaim a measure he or she has placed in the hopper after it has been assigned a number and referred to committee (a process that normally occurs the same day). Once a measure has been numbered and referred, it becomes the property of the House and cannot be modified by the sponsor. It is too late at this point to make any changes to the bill—however cosmetic they might be—except by amending the bill on the House floor during its consideration. Introduced bills or resolutions can be taken up by the House even if the sponsor resigns from the House or dies.

In the first days of a new Congress, hundreds of bills and resolutions are introduced. Measures are usually numbered sequentially based on the date of introduction, but Representatives may seek to reserve bill numbers in advance by communicating with the Parliamentarian's office prior to introduction. Bill numbers are sometimes seen as a way to provide shorthand meaning to the legislation, enhance its visibility, or confer symbolic importance. Measures have sometimes been assigned the same number for several Congresses, perhaps because lawmakers and others have grown accustomed to referring to a bill by its number. For instance, sponsors of tax reform proposals may request H.R. 1040 as a bill number to draw attention to the 1040 tax form many individuals use to pay federal income taxes. By the same logic, a bill addressing ocular health or medical coverage for eyeglass and contact lenses might take the number H.R. 2020 because 20/20 is considered normal vision.

In recent Congresses, the House has ordered that bill numbers H.R. 1 through H.R. 10 be reserved for assignment by the majority leader and numbers H.R. 11 through H.R. 20 be reserved for the minority leader. These bills, sometimes called "message" bills because they often represent the top agenda items of each political party, tend to generate considerable attention and coverage.

Statistics on Introduced Measures

The number of bills and resolutions introduced in a given Congress fluctuates over time as Table 1 shows. Some of this variation can be explained on the basis of changes in House rules and practices. From 1968 to 1978, for instance, a limit of 25 was placed on the number of cosponsorships a measure could obtain. One effect of this rule was to encourage the introduction of identically worded legislation (with a new bill number) to allow additional Members to sign on as cosponsors. The cosponsorship limit was removed in 1979, which accounts in part for the drop in introduced measures between the 95 th and 96 th Congresses. No longer was it necessary to introduce duplicative bills for the purpose of gaining cosponsors.

The House has also sought to reduce the amount of commemorative legislation it considers. The rules for the 104 th Congress (1995-1996), for instance, included new restrictions on the introduction of measures that would express a commemoration "through the designation of a specified period of time." The decline in the number of introduced measures in that Congress might be attributed at least in part to the new rule. The 116 th Congress (2019-2020) maintains this ban on temporal commemorations.

Most measures are introduced by individual Members. Five House committees (Appropriations, Budget, Ethics, House Administration, and Rules) may also draft and report an "original" measure on specific subjects identified in House rules. This means that those particular committees do not have to wait for measures to be referred to them in order to act. The committee chair is often considered the sponsor when a committee reports original legislation, although the measure is perhaps best understood as a product that incorporates views and input from other committee members as well.