Congressional Ping-Pong: How the House & Senate Find Compromise

For a bill to become a law, it must pass through both the House & Senate in the same form and be signed into law by the president. But that seemingly simple process is sometimes far more complex when the two chambers of Congress can’t get on the same page.

When a bill passes one chamber of Congress and it’s amended & passed by the other chamber, it has to go back to the original chamber for another passage vote before it goes to the president’s desk. But sometimes further amendments mean that a bill keeps getting bounced back-and-forth between the two chambers as if they were playing a game of legislative ping-pong:

This week, two bills that passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support were amended and passed with broad bipartisan support by the House: 

• The UIGHUR Act (S. 178) would block technology exports that could aid China’s persecution of the Uighur Muslims and impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible. It passed the Senate on a voice vote and the House on a 407-1 vote.
• The TRACED Act (S. 151) would coordinate federal agencies’ efforts to crack down on robocall scams. It passed the Senate on a 97-1 vote and the House on a 417-3 vote.

While the changes the House made to the bills clearly weren’t at the expense of bipartisan support, the Senate may look to further refine the bills before volleying them back to the House.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / RichVintage)