CONTENTS:  OVERVIEW OF COMMITTEES  · THE PROCESS  · COMMITTEE STRUCTURE & LEADERS  · RELATED LINKS

The Legislative Process

If we are to affect the legislative process, we need to understand 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, divide the budget among all the Congressional committees that have jurisdiction over the various departments and agencies, such as NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the FAA.

Congressional 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   Senate   Committee on Science     Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation       Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics         Subcommittee on Science, Technology, & Space

Appropriations

House   Senate   Committee on Appropriations     Committee on Appropriations       Subcommittee on VA, HUD, & Independent Agencies         Subcommittee on VA, HUD, & Independent 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)   Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman: Ted Stevens (R-AK) Subcommittees · Commerce, Justice, State, & the Judiciary · Defense · Military Construction · Transportation · VA, HUD, & Independent Agencies   Subcommittees · Commerce, Justice, State, & the Judiciary · Defense · Military Construction · Transportation · VA, HUD, & Independent Agencies   House Armed Services Committee Chairman: Duncan Hunter (R-CA)   Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman: John Warner (R-VA) Subcommittees · Military Procurement · Military Research & Development   Subcommittees · AirLand Forces · Emerging Threats & Capabilities · Readiness & Management Support · Strategic   House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman: Don Young (R-AK)   Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman: John McCain (R-AZ) Subcommittees · Aviation   Subcommittees · Aviation · Science, Technology, & Space   House Committee on Science Chairman: Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY)     Subcommittees · Basic Research · Space & Aeronautics · Environment, Technology, & Standards

Helpful Links

These links will connect you to other sites that provide more in depth information on the legislative process.

The Whitehouse: A token link to the Executive Branch. The Congress: Here is a general starting point to the US Congress. House of Representatives: More specific information on the House. U.S. Senate: More specific information on the Senate Library of Congress: This is always a good source for any information. The U.S. Constitution: An online, searchable copy of the Constitution. How Laws Are Made: A good tutorial on the legislative process AIAA National Public Policy web page: Information about public policy in the AIAA and the key aerospace issues for this Congress.

Adjourned!

After learning a little about how it all works, now read about how you can make a difference!

Questions or comments? Contact the SF Section Public Policy Officer [pubpol@aiaa-sf.org]