284 CHAPTER 9|CONGRESS
Key Diff erences between House and Senate Processes
There are three central diff erences between the legislative processes of the House
and the Senate: the continuity of the membership and the impact that has on the
rules; the way in which bills get to the fl oor; and the structure of the fl oor pro-
cess, including debate and amendments. First, because the Senate is a continu-
ing body, with two-thirds of its members returning every session without facing
re-election, there has been greater stability in the rules of the Senate than the
House. However, Senate rules can be changed at the start of a session if necessary
to accommodate new members’ needs.
Second, the process by which a bill gets to the fl oor is much more complicated
in the House than in the Senate. Although new bills generally get placed at the bot-
tom of the legislative calendar in the House, the leadership can move a bill to the
top of the agenda in several ways. One way is to have the bill considered under what
is called suspension of the rules; another is to have the Rules Committee make
a special rule that gives the bill top priority if a majority of the House members
approve. The entire procedure is much easier in the Senate, where the leadership
can give bills privileged status simply by putting them at the top of the agenda via
a motion or unanimous consent.
Finally, the fl oor process itself is simpler in the Senate than in the House.
This is partly due to the relative size of the two chambers: the House with 435
members needs more rules than the 100-person Senate. Moreover, the Senate
has unlimited debate and a very open amendment process. As mentioned earlier,
unless restricted by a unanimous consent agreement, senators can speak as long
as they want and off er any type of amendment to a bill. In contrast, the House is a
more complex institution. The Rules Committee governs the nature of debate on
a bill there: closed rules do not allow any amendments, open rules allow related
amendments, and modifi ed rules allow some amendments but not others. Floor
managers control general debate under a fi ve-minute rule, although that restric-
tion is frequently circumvented through an elaborate process that allows more
time.
Ironically, although the Senate is formally committed to unlimited debate,
senators often voluntarily place limits on themselves, which makes them oper-
ate more like the House. Similarly, although the House has strict rules concerning
debate and amendments, there are ways of bending those rules to make that cham-
ber operate more like the potentially free-wheeling Senate.Oversight
Once a bill becomes a law, Congress plays another crucial role by overseeing the
implementation of the law to make sure the bureaucracy interprets it as Con-
gress intended. Other motivations driving the oversight process are the desire
to gain publicity that may help in the re-election quest or to embarrass the presi-DESCRIBE HOW
CONGRESS ENSURES
THAT THE BUREAUCRACY
IMPLEMENTS POLICIES
CORRECTLY