Congress Classroom · student handout

Two chambers, one text

Name Period

From 2013 to 2024, about one bill in 3 that passed the chamber it started in also passed the other. Of those, 97% became law.

Words this lesson uses

Unanimous consent. Agreeing to something because nobody objects. Most Senate bills pass this way, with no vote taken.

Voice vote. Those in favor say "aye" and those against say "no", and the chair announces which side sounded larger. Nobody's vote is written down.

Suspension of the rules. The House's fast road: 40 minutes of debate, no changes from the floor, and two-thirds of those voting needed to pass.

Amendment. A change to the text of a measure. The second chamber can pass a measure with one, which sends it back to the first.

Public law. A bill that completed every step and was signed, or passed over a veto. It gets a number like 118-23: the Congress, then its order within it.

Chamber. The House of Representatives or the Senate. A measure has to get through both.

Three bills across the Capitol

1. Unchanged: S. 4351, Poison Control Centers Reauthorization Act of 2024 (its record)

Date	What the record says
Jul 11, 2024	Passed the Senate, by unanimous consent
Sep 17, 2024	Passed the House, same text, by voice vote
Sep 26, 2024	Became Public Law 118-86

2. Changed, then settled: H.R. 1734, TRANQ Research Act of 2023 (research on a drug found mixed into street fentanyl; its record)

Date	What the record says
May 11, 2023	Passed the House, 425 to 0
Jun 22, 2023	Passed the Senate, with a change, by unanimous consent
Dec 4, 2023	House agreed to the other chamber's change
Dec 19, 2023	Became Public Law 118-23

3. Passed both, never law: S. 1146, Find and Protect Foster Youth Act (finding children missing from foster care; its record)

Date	What the record says
Oct 30, 2023	Passed the Senate, by unanimous consent
Sep 18, 2024	Passed the House, with a change, 408 to 7
Sep 19, 2024	The Senate received the House's version and never acted on it
Jan 3, 2025	The 118th Congress ended; the bill died

What the Senate changed in H.R. 1734. The House passed a bill with three sections: a short title, a list of research the National Institute of Standards and Technology must do on detecting the drug, and a report to the House science committee within a year. The Senate kept all of that and rewrote the bill as one new text: it added a section of definitions, sent the report to the Senate's commerce committee as well, added a fourth section ordering a separate two-year study by the Government Accountability Office, and put "of 2023" on the end of the title. The House could have changed it back. Instead, five months later, it agreed to the Senate's version by voice vote, and that text is the law. Read both: as the House passed it and as the Senate passed it.

Bill 3 passed the House and passed the Senate. Why is it not a law? What would the Senate have had to do?
Bill 2 took months to settle one change. What does the record show about that wait, and what does it not?

The same words

If the second chamber passes the first one's bill unchanged, it is done.
If the second chamber changes it, the bill goes back. The first chamber can accept the change, change it again, or refuse. The two can send amendments back and forth, or name a conference committee of members from both to write one version. Conference committees are now rare.
Either chamber can simply stop. If the Congress ends first, the bill dies.
Then the President signs it or vetoes it. A veto can be overridden by two-thirds of each chamber.
If the President does neither within 10 days (Sundays not counted), it becomes law without a signature, unless Congress has adjourned and the bill cannot be sent back. Then it dies: a pocket veto.

Where the hurdle is

	Bills
Passed the chamber they started in	6,089
Of those, also passed the other chamber	2,117, about one in 3
Of the bills that passed both, became law	97%
Of the bills that passed both, had to settle differences between the chambers	15%
Of the bills that passed both, used a conference committee	20 bills in twelve years
Of the bills that passed both, vetoed	33 (2 overridden)

Across the Capitol

Has it passed the chamber it started in? The other one?
If both: did the second chamber pass it "without amendment" or with a change? If changed, find the action where the first chamber agreed, or note that none exists yet.
If only one: how long has it waited for the other chamber?
Find whether the other chamber has a similar bill of its own (a "companion"). Why might both chambers start their own versions?

Exit ticket

The Senate changed one of these bills and the House agreed to the change months later. If the House had refused instead, name two things that could have happened next.