[AIAA] The Legislative Process

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If you are to affect the legislative process, it is helpful to understand a few basic facts about how it works. The process begins every year in January when the President sends his budget to Congress. The Senate and House of Representatives, following parallel paths, then divide the budget among all the committees that have jurisdiction over the various departments and agencies, such as NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the FAA.

Committees

The AIAA testifies most often before committees dealing with NASA, so we will use that agency's budget in describing the legislative process. The route which NASA's budget bill must follow carries it along two parallel paths, one in the House and one in the Senate. In each house, the bill must go through two committees: the Authorization and the Appropriations, in that order. Following are the names of these committees and their subcommittees:

Authorization

House:
Committee on Science
Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics
Senate:
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space

Appropriations

House:
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independant Agencies
Senate:
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independant Agencies

The Process

In each house, the Authorization Committee gives NASA's proposed budget a thorough going-over, and its deliberations determine what will be funded as well as what their maximum funding levels will be. In essence, the Authorization Committee sets the "policy." Each Authorization Committee then passes NASA's budget along to the corresponding Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee then balances the needs of all federal agency programs and decides how much it can afford to allot to each agency.

The principal device used by congressional committees for arriving at these decisions is the public hearing. At NASA budget hearings, for example, the NASA Administrator, Associate Administrators, and outside witnesses such as AIAA, present testimony and answer questions on the agency's budget for the coming fiscal year. Hearings are usually held by a subcommittee of the larger parent committee (aka the "full committee").

After these budget hearings, the same subcommittee "marks up" the piece of legislation based upon input from both the agency and other witnesses such as AIAA. The mark-up consists of deleting or adding funds to programs, deleting or adding programs, or changing a program's nature by stretching it out or changing its requirements. The mark-up is a compromise, the product of trade-offs and preferences of the subcommittee members. The results and reasons for the committee's actions are then described in a report. The subcommittee then "reports out". That is, it passes its marked-up bill to the full committee, which in turn passes ("reports out") the bill to the full House or Senate, sometimes amending the bill in the process. Each house may again amend the bill before passing it.

If differences exist between the two bills as passed by the House and Senate (as they usually do), a conference committee is created to work out the discrepancies. The results from the conference committee must be approved by both houses, and the bill finally can be sent to the President, who usually signs it into law. On some occasions the President may veto the legislation, sending it back to Congress for its reconsideration.

A Closer Look at Congressional Committees

Below is a listing of congressional committees with oversight for aerospace-related matters. In addition, the names of the presiding chairmen is included. For further information you may refer to the US Congress Directory that the AIAA Govenment Relations staff distributes to Public Policy Officers with every new Congress. The directory lists all of the House and Senate members, all congressional committees and their membership, all Cabinet members and Agency representatitves, as well as helpful phone numbers for obtaining useful legislative information. This can also be obtained online for the House and the Senate.

House Appropriations Committee

Chairman: Bill Young (R-FL)

Subcommittees

Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary
Defense
Military Construction
Transportation
VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies

House Armed Services Committee

Chairman: Bob Stump (R-AZ)

Subcommittees

Military Procurement
Military Research and Development

House Committee on Science

Chairman: Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY)

Subcommittees

Basic Research
Space and Aeronautics
Environment, Technology, and Standards

House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Chairman: Don Young (R-AK)

Subcommittees

Aviation

Senate Appropriations Committee

Chairman: Robert Byrd (D-WV)

Subcommittees

Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary
Defense
Military Construction
Transportation
VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies

Senate Armed Services Committee

Chairman: Carl Levin (D-MI)

Subcommittees

AirLand Forces
Emerging Threats and Capabilities
Readiness and Management Support
Strategic

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee

Chairman: Ernest Hollings (D-SC)

Subcommittees

Aviation
Science, Technology, and Space

Useful Government Links

These links will connect you to other sites that provide more in depth information on the legislative process. After learning a little about how it all works, now read about how you get involved!

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Questions or Comments? Contact Todd Farley [ pubpol@aiaa-sf.org ]
Last updated: Oct 6, 2001