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I think Your hair is fluffy.
I wish I have your hair, but
>> I put gel in it yesterday.
Today I went--
>> I don't have any.
>> I wouldn't call gel fluffy.
>> It was fluffy
when you started here.
>> Oh, it was.
Oh, yeah.
>> It was?
>> Hi, I'm Professor Dennis
Falcon, and welcome
to MyPoliscilab.
Today I'm joined
by Professors Bryan Reece
and Victor Obasohan as always.
Today we have a special guest
Rangani Punchihewa.
I had to look
in my card right there,
but I hope you don't mind.
We're going to keep moving
to save time.
The law making process,
you know, I have a take on this.
I don't know if we're going
to cover this today,
but in my classes I teach
students that it's a very
difficult process to understand.
You can't really get a handle
on it.
The fact that most bills
introduced never go anywhere,
but it's the core, I think,
of the democratic process
understanding how a bill becomes
a law, because this is a land
of laws and not people.
Anybody want to add to that?
Let's go.
>> Well, I agree with that,
you know, what you just said,
you know, that what Congress
or any lawmaking institution is
all about is to try and come
up with laws that seems
to satisfy the political
appetite of such a diverse group
of people called America.
>> Okay, what did you just say?
No, I'm kidding.
That was great.
Now Professor Reece,
I'm going to put you
on the spot.
>> Sure.
>> Before we started shooting
you said, "Oh, no.
My favorite lecture."
>> I was born lecturing.
>> Why? What's so hard about it?
>> Well, it's just a long,
complicated process.
And whenever you're describing
process, I think it just gets a
little drawn out here.
And it is a complicated process.
But it's important to realize--
the interspersing parts
about this discussion are first
it's important to realize
that this was a radical idea 200
years ago; the idea
of letting the public
in on the lawmaking process.
You know, we don't get
to vote directly on these laws
at the federal level.
We do at the state live
in some states,
but it's our representatives
that are representing us
and trying to create laws
that could last for hundreds
of years and that all of us have
to live by if they are passed.
So in that sense it
is interesting.
Following the details
of the process can be a little
dreary at times.
>> Okay, Rangani,
let me pull you
into this conversation.
Now you've taken like Intro
to Polisci before.
I know that.
But let me ask you,
if you were going
to get an instructor
that told you,
"I'm going to teach you not how
a bill becomes a law but how
to kill a bill."
Or if you had an instructor
that said, "No,
I'm going to teach you how a
bill becomes a law according
to the textbook."
Which instructor do you think
you'd probably want
to take the most?
>> The one who states the
process of how a bill becomes a
law, yeah, and not how
to kill it.
Because, I mean,
as a student it's important
to understand the process.
Also it's important
to understand how
as students we can influence
the process.
So, yeah, I would
like to know the whole process,
not how to kill it.
>> I'm glad,
because my cynicism hasn't
like spilled
over onto you completely yet.
Now Professor Obasohan,
is she right there?
I mean, is this really something
we can teach, you know,
in a week or two weeks
of lectures at this level?
>> I think we can.
You know, Rangani is
correct, you know,
and I hope the rest
of our students, you know,
are like her.
You know, you want to know
about the process,
because it has an impact.
It does affect you or us
as a people.
Can you imagine the government
trying to cut education funding?
Is it likely to affect you
at every level?
Do you have some power
to do something about it
in a representative form
of democracy?
The answer is yes.
So in this case, you know,
our students need
to be engaged particularly
in this, you know, hard times.
You need to know
to be fully informed
and take advantage of, you know,
the situation from time to time.
>> Professor Obasohan just
brought up let's say a bill
that's going to do something
or another.
It's been introduced already.
If a bill's been introduced
already in the House
or the Senate,
are we already behind the eight
ball on this one as people
of the general public?
Should we know more
about what goes
on even before a bill
is introduced?
>> Yes, ideally.
You've missed a few steps
in the process that are rolling
up to the introduction
of the bill.
You could have had some
influence over the groups
that were being brought
around it.
You could have been part
of the coalition
that was helping write the bill,
part of the strategy
that was developed prior
to the bill being introduced
in terms of how you're going
to move it through the process.
But after it's been introduced,
there's still a long way to go.
So you could be completely
surprised with the introduction
of a bill you don't like,
and you still have a lot of room
to work and take action.
So it's not too late.
>> Okay, now Professor Obasohan,
to add onto what Professor Reece
stated, because I think he
nailed it.
You know, if we focus
on Congress too much,
are we missing the point?
Shouldn't we be pointing our
students towards
like the lawmaking
or the law writing process
and participation
in interest groups, et cetera?
>> To me this is one
of the most unfortunate
processes in how a bill
becomes law.
The process to some extent,
some people will argue
to a large extent,
are being hijacked
by special interests groups.
Where you now find special
interest groups actually engage
in the drafting
of the bill originally
and simply getting somebody
either in the House
or in the Senate, you know,
to sponsor it
and then ultimately, you know,
it becomes law without the input
at all of most of us.
So on that level, you know,
it is very sad, you know,
that we have sort of, you know,
sublet the Congress, you know,
or any lawmaking institution
have subletting their own
constitutional responsibility
to special interest groups.
>> Now we have a long standing
disagreement
on that particular argument,
because, you know,
my understanding is the First
Amendment guarantees your right
to petition government
of association, et cetera.
So if people want
to get together and write laws
and then find sponsors,
to me that's them using their
First Amendment rights.
Can we expect these elected
officials to actually, you know,
go through their daily jobs
but at the same time be writing
laws and doing all the research?
Is that too much to expect?
>> I don't think that's too much
to expect.
I mean, that's why they are
there for.
That's their job.
So I don't think it's too much
to expect.
>> Professor Reece?
>> Yeah, well,
I would disagree a little bit
with Rangani
and Professor Obasohan
on this one.
>> It won't be the first time.
>> I think you need to get
as much involvement
in the process as possible.
So if you're working on a piece
of legislation to raise tuition
or lower tuition,
there's a whole community
with people with ideas
about how you should do that
or should not do that.
And you need to invite them
into the process
to find the consensus point,
to find the best bill possible.
So it makes the process
very messy.
It makes the process drawn
out and long.
It makes it difficult
to get through, but the product
that you come out with
on the backside if it does go
through can often times be
very great.
>> Even if it's still a
compromise between a lot
of different competing groups.
>> Yeah, no one person gets
their way.
It's what the community wants.
>> Okay, now Professor Obasohan,
once a bill gets introduced
and it gets carved up and sent
to various committees,
sometimes multiple committees
will get a chance
to start looking at a bill.
Then it gets to subcommittees.
Is this where the real power is
in the House or in the Senate;
in the committees
or subcommittee structure?
>> Yeah. The heart of Congress,
the heart of Congress is located
in the committee system.
Without the committee system,
you know, there is no Congress.
There is no lawmaking body,
because this is
where political bargaining,
political compromise take place.
They are the experts.
Once a committee reports
out favorably, you know,
once they report
out a bill it is more likely
to become law,
because they have done the
homework on behalf
of the entire institution.
>> Well, you got it
with 95 percent of all bills die
in committees or subcommittees
at some point, so I mean,
that's where the sausage is
being made.
>> Yeah.
>> Now, just a little bit
about the role of the president
in all of this
in the lawmaking process.
Do you think
that the Executive Branch
and the Presidency,
they themselves are doing their
job in terms of, you know,
introducing bills?
Are they interfering
by introducing too many bills?
Is Congress lost its, I guess,
the peoples' House?
Bills are supposed
to originate there.
But they're coming
from the White House
in large part.
Is that too much?
>> Well, forgive me.
I don't think that's too much.
That's the reality.
If you don't get a presidential
approval, you know,
right from the beginning
or at least an encouragement
from the White House
from the beginning,
that bill is not going
to become law,
because the president has a
veto pin.
So that is the reality.
So you either get the White
House okay or encouragement,
otherwise you are not going
to succeed.
>> Do you really think people
have the time nowadays
or the interest
to be babysitting
and monitoring what Congress is
doing when you consider the
thousands of bills
that are introduced
every session?
>> I don't think students have
the time to monitor these bills
as they move forward.
I know I don't have the time
to monitor these bills,
and I'm a political scientist.
You know, this is what I do all
the time.
So this is why you belong
to interests groups.
This is why you
join organizations.
This is why you, you know,
you read the news.
Those are the organizations
that do have the time.
This is part of their job
to keep track of this stuff.
And then if a bill gets
to a certain point
where it's possibly going
to pass or it needs a little
push, they will notify you.
And then you can get involved
in the process.
>> Thank you very much
for joining us at MyPoliscilab.
The lawmaking process,
you know what?
If I could teach just one class
the whole semester and focus
on just the lawmaking process,
I think I could put a dent
in it.
But unfortunately, we don't have
that much time.
So we just have to plug along,
and that's what you got to do.
So go hit the books.