Assignment task: Sally is a Committee Counsel on the Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives and she is asking for your help. The cigarette industry has refused to limit the amount of nicotine in the cigarettes they produce. The Chair of the Agriculture Committee has decided the government should step in and address this national problem. Sally has been asked by the committee chair to have a bill drafted by Legislative Counsel that will regulate the amount of nicotine content that can be in tobacco used to make cigarettes. The idea is that if the cigarette manufacturers will not address the problem, the tobacco farmers will.
Needless to say, saving the youth of America from nicotine addiction is a very attractive policy proposal for someone who runs for election. A number of bills have been introduced and it is expected that they will be consolidated into one giant bill, with Administration support prior to its introduction.
(1) Explain the significance of Administration support in the legislative process.
Accordingly, more than one House committee has informed the Parliamentarian of the House that they believe the bill should be referred to their committee, either initially, jointly or in sequence.
(2) What committees can you foresee requesting referral? How strong are their arguments? Leadership will assume the Parliamentarian will refer the bill only to the committee/s with the strongest argument in their favor for jurisdiction. To what committee or committees should the bill be referred and how should that referral be made? Keep in mind, the more committees the bill is referred to, the less chance it will be enacted.
Assume the House Parliamentarian is a non-smoker who would like to see the bill become law. Senior staff have power and the Parliamentarian is an expert in Congressional procedure.
(3) The Parliamentarian is responsible for operating the Congressional calendars, what role could the Parliamentarian play in helping to get the bill passed.
In the House assume the bill ultimately is marked up and reported out of Committee/s and the Speaker decides to bring it up on the Suspension Calendar.
(4) What is the significance of this move and its implications for passage?