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June 5

Technical question

Hi, I have a curiosity about it. What if in the United States Congress, a law passes only to one House? I mean, to take a trivial example, it goes to the Senate but not to the House of Representatives. It's rare, but can it happen? And if so, what happens? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.96.42 (talk) 12:19, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Quoting Procedures of the United States Congress § Bills and resolutions: "Once a bill is approved by one house, it is sent to the other, which may pass, reject, or amend it. For the bill to become law, both houses must agree to identical versions of the bill." (And the President has to sign it.) One possibility is not mentioned, which is that the other house may refuse to even consider the bill. Mitch McConnell has embraced the nickname "Grim Reaper";^[1] in his capacity as Senate majority leader he has refused to bring over 400 bills already passed by the House of Representatives to the Senate floor. "The Senate, where bills go to die."^[2] --Lambiam 14:27, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Just for completeness, for the bill to become law, it has to pass both houses, and one of three other things: (1) the President signs it, (2) the President allows it to become law without his signature (by taking no action for ten days without Congress adjourning in the meantime), or (3) the President vetoes it, and Congress overrides his veto. --Trovatore (talk) 00:07, 12 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

If we're understanding your question right: bills in multicameral legislatures get passed by one house but not taken up or rejected by another all the time. In the specific case of the U.S. Congress, for ordinary bills there's no requirement for a house to even consider a bill passed by the other. They're free to just ignore it if they wish. It's not even very rare, though it's probably more common for such bills to be "taken up" by the other house but to "die in committee" (that seems like it ought to be an article) or otherwise not be brought to the floor for a vote. --47.155.96.47 (talk) 05:46, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]