Slow down there, Bill: in the span of a few seconds, the song dashes through a good chunk of the legislative process while glossing over some important details. Out of the 5,654 bills introduced in the 114th Congress so far, 311 have made it out of committee and onto the floor of a chamber for consideration. A current member, writing anonymously in Vox, called committees “a waste of time.” “Why develop any expertise as a committee member if your decisions will only be overridden by party leadership?” asks the member.īill does get one thing right here: most bills’ final resting place is committee. Unsurprisingly, this has led to big attendance problems: many members of Congress have a hard time showing up to important committee hearings. And they have a lot of sway in getting members to vote leadership’s way.
Today, thanks to a number of factors - campaign cash, emphasis on issue messaging, the constant news cycle - party leaders decide what goes to the floor for consideration. In the 1970s, when Bill was introduced to American kids, the chairmen of powerful committees like Appropriations and Ways and Means were the titans of Capitol Hill. Why? The short answer is that, since the 1990s, the balance of power has gradually shifted toward party leadership and away from committees. But in recent years, committees have proven unable to get even basic tasks completed, like funding the nation’s highways for longer than a year. In theory, it’s how the committee process is supposed to work, and the way it worked for decades. Only if they can agree and present a satisfactory version of him to Congress will they bring him to the floor. Slumping outside the door of the committee chamber, he explains that key congressmen are discussing and debating him. McCoy, the next step in Bill’s journey is the committee process, a critical stop on the path from bill to law. Having been duly dreamed up by constituents and created by Rep. it’s a good time to ask: in what ways is the Schoolhouse Rock classic a relic of a time when Congress actually worked? Let’s start at the beginning: With four legislative days until the government runs out of funding - and the possibility for weekend negotiations in D.C. These days, the big story is less how a bill becomes a law, but more how a divisive issue becomes a government shutdown: the possibility of a shutdown as conservatives push for federal action on the Planned Parenthood videos is just the latest example. A version updated to reflect the political environment of 2015 would probably poison politics for a generation of American children. Unfortunately, though, years of congressional dysfunction have rendered the song so antiquated that it may no longer be useful.
“I’m Just a Bill,” which explained how a bill becomes law in Congress, has become a touchstone of civic education for generations of American schoolchildren.
In 1976, Schoolhouse Rock made an adorable, iconic character out of a pathetic scrap of paper with one signature tune.
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