Legislative Process

Legislative Process

For information about the legislative process for general bills, see here. Visit also the bills platform of the legal encyclopedia.

Learn more about the legislative history here, about the documents that make up the legislative history of a statute, including bills, committee reports, hearings, and floor debates in the legislative process. About the Legislative Process in the U.S. Constitutional Enciclopedia of law, see here.

The Legislative Process For Most Tax Bills

The legislative process for most tax bills is as follows: Upon its introduction, a tax bill is referred to either of two Congressional committees, the House Ways and Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee. After hearings and committee deliberation, the bill is sent to the floor of the House or Senate, where it is deliberated on before a vote. A bill that is passed in one chamber will then be sent to the other chamber and is called an engrossed bill. If both chambers pass a bill with the same text, it can be forwarded to the President. If the House and Senate versions differ, a Conference Committee is appointed to meet and resolve the differences. Each chamber must then pass or reject the bill that emerges from the Conference Committee. If passed, this final version would then be submitted to the President.

As a result of this process, significant versions of a tax bill include:
· the bill as amended and reported by the House Ways and Means Committee,
· the bill as passed by the House, (House Engrossed Copy)
· the bill as amended and reported by the Senate Finance Committee,
· the bill as passed by the Senate, (Senate Engrossed Copy), and
· the bill as agreed to and reported by the Conference Committee.

As a bill goes through these stages, various documents are produced that indicate legislative intent. These include:
· the House Ways and Means Committee Report,
· the House debate and floor amendments,
· the Senate Finance Committee Report,
· the full Senate debate and floor amendments, and
· the Conference Committee Report.

The documents most reflective of legislative intent are the reports. They explain the reasoning behind the legislation as well as the meaning of certain phrases. The Conference Committee Report, in particular, is a good source for legislative history research. It usually explains why certain provisions were rejected and why others were included in the final legislation.

An additional report is sometimes published by the Joint Committee on Taxation (the “Joint Committee”), a committee comprised of members from both the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance, which makes tax policy and legislation recommendations. The Joint Committee’s reports, which are called “Blue Books,” consist of general explanations of major tax legislation. The Blue Books are derived from reports generated in the course of the legislation’s passage. The Blue Books are considered secondary authority, although they are highly regarded.