Thursday, July 3, 2014

More from Vox: Beating the odds Why one bill made it through a gridlocked Congress — and so many don't

A great story about how a bill gets through a divisive and dysfunctional Congress. It features an updated version of the "I'm just a bill video."

- Click here for it.

2305 and 2306 students will see some questions about the bill making process on the national and state level on the final, but most of it is about the standard institutional process. This takes a more expansive look at it.

This tells the story of the how the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act became law  and boils the process down to 9 simple steps:

1. Get the attention of the relevant committee chairman
2. Ease the concerns of outside groups
3. Win an ally in the federal bureaucracy
4. Find a way to pay for it
5. Make sure not even one senator has a problem with it
6. Make sure the House will pass the Senate version
7. Deal with leaks to the press
8. Smooth over the administration's concerns
9. Make some last-minute concessions to the Defense Department