|
Legislation Research Project
Continued
from Introductory Page
Step #1: Bill Selection
Click on the Thomas banner above to
log on to the Thomas service at
http://thomas.loc.gov/. [Thomas was initiated by former Speaker
Newt Gingrich.]
Your first task is to choose a bill
to research and report on. To do that, click on the link that says
"Bills, Resolutions."
Then click on "Search Bill Summary
& Status."
Then, assuming that you do not
already know of a bill that you want to choose (in which case just
search for it), click on "Popular and Short Titles" under the
"Browse by:" heading.
Make sure you are looking at the
list for the 111th (and current) Congress. The list is alphabetical
and is dozens of pages long. [I know it's a lot to look through, but
imagine being a member of Congress and actually having to know
something about all these bills!] If you have an idea about a topic
that may interest you, enter a couple of letters in the search box
at the top of the page to skip down to a particular part of the
alphabet.
For example, entering
te in the search string box
brings us to bills about teachers - one of my favorite subjects!
Gee, the
Teacher Tax Cut Act of 2007 looks like a fine bill! I can click
the link to find out more information.
Sponsored by Ron Paul (of Lake
Jackson, TX)! [I knew there was some reason I spent all those hours
working for him! Not to mention many hours playing golf with his son
Randy
in my college years!] But the bad news is that this bill is
apparently dead. It was referred to committee on February 14th of
2007 and
nothing has happened to it since. It has only one cosponsor, and
no Senate version has been introduced (otherwise there would be a
"2." under the "1." So I'd better find a more likely candidate!
How about the
Teacher Tax Relief Act of 2007? This looks like it might
actually go somewhere. 74 House and 9 Senate cosponsors, although it
still hasn't got out of committee. But that's still a better choice
for this report! More to work with. Be careful, though. Look through
all the steps of this project, especially step #4, before you
choose. You could end up having to start over if you don't choose
wisely!
Important!
Now that you have chosen a bill, you must complete and submit
the form at
http://classroom.kleinisd.net/webs/gnelson/ap_gov_leg_project.htm
to make sure that nobody else has chosen the same bill. So do that
immediately - first come, first served! - or you proceed at the risk
of having to start over!
Deadline:
Thursday, November 2nd at midnight. If you are
working with a partner, only one of you needs to submit the form. If
both of you submit, it must be the same bill. If it's not the same
bill, your submission will be counted as late. Late submissions will
result in a 10 point penalty on this major grade project!
Move on to Step #2
Pages relating to this assignment:
|
