How Congress Members Vote on Bills and Amendments

Abstract

How a member decides to vote Congress has many responsibilities, but one of the most important is that a congress member must vote. Unlike the citizens who cast their votes on the ballot boxes, the congress members cast their votes on a 'yea' or 'nay' on various motions, bills, and amendments on the house floor. Congress is the law-making body in the United States, and it consists of two houses, namely the House of Representatives and the senate. Congress is responsible for making laws then further subjecting them to the president for singing upon where they become laws of the land to govern Americans' lives. In some instances, Congress engages in unique and specialized judicial and electoral functions. For example, times, Congress is forced to act as a judicial body when the president's removal or impeachment is involved. Another instance is that Congress undertakes special services in choosing the president and the vice president in an election. There is no failure to gain the majority of the electoral votes. Congress's legislative work happens in the house when a member of Congress introduces a bill by dropping them in the hopper at the clerk’s desk in the house chamber. Once a bill has been submitted, it is referred to the house committees, then to the sub-committees. after reviewing has been done, it is returned to the full committees for recommendations where they are further taken to the entire house. The bill is then debated on the floor of the house upon where voting is done. If it passes, it is then subjected to the next level for it to become a law. In the amendment of the constitution, Congress is very much involved whereby two-thirds of those present in both the senate and the house must be involved in the voting process. In 2015, Representative Steve Womack introduced a house joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from physical desecration. Representative Womack supported his proposal by raising concerns that the previous senate vote had always bothered him. Womack said, “It's always just kind of been an aggravating thought to me that our ability to protect the symbol of this nation, to give Congress the authority to protect the symbol of this nation, fell one vote short of going to the states." Similarly, the senate majority leader Mitch McConnell cited that freedom includes the freedom to burn the flag by clearly stating that "I revere the American flag as a symbol of freedom. But behind it is something larger – the Constitution". It is subsequently apparent that the two differ in the essence that one wants to uphold the court’s ruling while the other wants to maintain the Congress's decision. All of these parties are in line with the United States' interest in their hearts because all are patriotic citizens of the United States. McConnell's sentiments supported the American Supreme Court in 1989, which had ruled that flag burning was constitutionally protected as far as political expression was concerned, whereby the Supreme Court invalidated the laws prohibiting desecration of the American flag. Therefore, with this kind of outcome, Congress passed a federal law in protecting the American flag. Still, in a later case of United States v. Eichman, the court of 1990 invalidated the Congress amendments by rejecting the statutory solution. To this reference, the Womack was trying to revisit Congress's initial decision by pushing a bill that would ensure that constitution protected the flag from desecration. Womack stated that "I am a true believer in the Constitution, which is why I'm trying to pursue an amendment to the Constitution to give Congress the authority to protect Old Glory." Womack says this in support of the flag's protection because it appears that people take advantage of the freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The Congress's efforts have constantly been humiliated by the court in that the court believes that burning the flag is acceptable expressive conduct to which the amendments passed in the house have failed a couple of times. Congress has been unable to pass amendments protecting the flag, and this issue seems like it will be of great controversy in the future. With all the trials made on the amendment of the constitution on the flag amendment, there is a reason why Congress falls short of the required numbers to amend the constitution. Therefore, it would be justified to acknowledge that the court's ruling is justified....