Why do only a small percentage of bills introduced into Congress become laws? (15)

It can be argued that in recent years Congress has been unproductive. The 113th Congress signed just 296/8,565 bills into law, far less than previous years, displaying the small percentage of bills that become laws. However, this can be attributed to a number of reasons. Firstly, party politics can affect the amount of bills that become laws. As the legislative process allows bills to ping-pong back and forth between chambers, a Democratic House for example, and a Republican Senate, may disagree over policy, sending a bill back and forth between them. This can affect the amount of bills that become laws and can alter bills entirely. Further, there are multiple points in which bills can be blocked, for example, bills can be blocked due to a chamber refusing to timetable them. In recent years, the Republicans have been using the Hastert rule and not allowing a vote on any bills that don’t have a GOP majority. For example in 2013 the BSEOIM Bill on immigration was blocked due to GOP control of the House. Additionally, conference committee’s formed to deal with bills that are ping-ponged from one chamber to another, have the ability to entirely block a bill and this can prevent many bills from becoming law. In addition, the President can use vetoes to block law that they don’t agree with. Whilst Congress can use a 2/3 majority to override regular vetoes, this is just not possible with a regular veto and the last override of a veto was in 2007. Obama himself as used at least 2 vetoes in his time as President and other presidents such as Bush have been known to veto much more. Overall this can display why so few bills become law. Finally, due to the electoral system, congressmen and senators often only vote for something if it will benefit them electorally. Particularly in the House, Congressmen are elected at a regularly 2 year interval and don’t have much job security due to this. Therefore, it can be argued that they will only vote on something for electoral benefit as they have less opportunity to advance politically. For example, in 2013 the Assault Weapons Ban bill was introduced by the Senate and 15 Democrats voted against the bill. This can display how electoral benefit may influence Senators as they claimed they voted this way due to the wishes of constituents. This displays how the electoral system can affect the amount of bills that become law. To conclude, it is evident that so few bills become law due to party politics and the amount of blocking points there are within the legislative process. Blocking points such as timetabling allow party politics and traditions such as the Hastert rule, to intervene and prevent bills from being signed into law.