Where Bills Die in the U.S. Senate

Friday, November 8, 2024

To advance their policy goals in the second Trump administration, Republicans are considering how best to organize Congress. One natural obstacle is the Senate, commonly described as “where bills go to die.” The Senate floor, in particular, presents a significant hurdle – with the possibility of legislative holds and the need for either unanimous consent or a lengthy process of filibusters and securing 60 votes for cloture, barring budget reconciliation procedures.

To determine how much of a challenge the Senate poses for legislation, a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper from co-directors Craig Volden of the University of Virginia and Alan Wiseman of Vanderbilt University examines the extent to which bills died on the floor of the Senate – or achieved other fates – over the past several Congresses. They find that around half of Senator-sponsored bills that reach the Senate floor are sent over to the House. Their ultimate fate then depends in part on whether the House majority matches that in the Senate. For the other half, not sent to the House, a declining number have been dying on the Senate floor, due to a significant increase in their language ultimately being embedded in larger packages that become law. Hence, while these bills are not advancing as standalone measures, their sponsors are successful in moving their ideas into law.

For House-sponsored bills sent to the Senate, their fate also depends somewhat on unified or divided government, with more bills dying in committee under divided government. For those House bills emerging from Senate committees, the vast majority become law either as standalone measures or (increasingly) embedded within other successful lawmaking vehicles.

To learn more, read the full report here and read the data here.

Photo: “US Senate Building” by Larry Lamsa is licensed under CC BY 2.0.