Omnibus bill

Last updated

An omnibus bill is a proposed law that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. Omnibus is derived from Latin and means "to, for, by, with or from everything". An omnibus bill is a single document that is accepted in a single vote by a legislature but packages together several measures into one or combines diverse subjects.

Contents

Because of their large size and scope, omnibus bills limit opportunities for debate and scrutiny. Historically, omnibus bills have sometimes been used to pass controversial amendments. For this reason, some consider omnibus bills to be anti-democratic. [1]

United States

In the United States, omnibus bills are sometimes known as "Big Ugly" bills. [2] [3] Examples include reconciliation bills, combined appropriations bills, and private relief and claims bills.

Appropriations legislation

Omnibus legislation is routinely used by the United States Congress to group together the budgets of all departments in one year in an omnibus spending bill. For example, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 was designed to help reduce the federal deficit by approximately $496 billion over five years through restructuring of the tax code. [4]

Historical examples

During the 19th century, there were three notable omnibus bills in the US.

The Compromise of 1850 had five disparate provisions designed by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. His purpose was to pacify sectional differences that threatened to provoke the secession of the slave states. The Fugitive Slave Act was the most infamous of the five compromise components, and was almost universally excoriated by abolitionists, the chief exception being Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts who prioritized preservation of the Union. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a Missouri slaveholder, opposed the omnibus compromise as an "unmanageable mass of incongruous bills, each an impediment to the other...." [5] While this bill did not pass as the official Compromise of 1850, it got the ball rolling. To satisfy members of Congress, Stephen A. Douglas separated the Compromise back into 5 separate bills and got it passed. Ultimately, disunion and civil war were delayed for a decade. In response, the 1861 Constitution of the Confederate States would ban omnibus legislation, requiring that every bill "shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title" (Article 1, Section 9.20).

The Omnibus Act of June 1868 admitted seven southern U.S. states as having satisfied the requirements of the Reconstruction Acts. [6]

The Omnibus Act of February 22, 1889 provided for the admission of four new states to the Union — North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington.

Canada

In Canada, one famous omnibus bill became the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69, a 126-page, 120-clause amendment to the Criminal Code passed under the leadership of Pierre Elliot Trudeau who was then Justice Minister in the government of Lester Pearson. This Act changed the law of the land in matters as diverse as homosexuality, prostitution, abortion, gambling, gun control and drunk driving.

Likewise, there was the Jobs and Growth Act (2012).

The SNC-Lavalin affair, which entailed the censure of Justin Trudeau by the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner, was started when the firm suggested to Trudeau that he include in his spring 2018 budget bill the deferred prosecution agreement measure that then-Attorney-General Wilson-Raybould refused to sanction, culminating in her January 2019 ouster from government and the subsequent scandal that surrounded it. [7]

The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act was created during the 42nd Parliament of Canada under the mask of the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1 in Part 4. The SNC-Lavalin affair was created as Division 20 of Part 6. [8]

Other countries

In the Republic of Ireland, the Second Amendment of the Constitution was an omnibus constitutional law, enacted in 1941, that made many unrelated changes to the country's fundamental law.

In Serbia, Omnibus law was adopted in 2002 that regulated the autonomous status of Vojvodina. [9]

Similarly, in New Zealand, an omnibus bill was passed in November 2016 that enacted legislation required for New Zealand to enter the Trans Pacific Partnership. [10] [11]

Section 55 of the Constitution of Australia requires that laws imposing taxation "deal only with the imposition of taxation" and "deal with one subject of taxation only" (except those relating to customs and excise); other purported provisions in a piece of tax legislation are of no legal effect. This does not outlaw all omnibus bills, but renders unconstitutional any omnibus bill imposing taxation. [12]

In October 2020, the People's Representative Council of Indonesia passed the Omnibus Law on Job Creation, a controversial omnibus law that aims to attract foreign investment and reduce business regulation, which the opponents say would be harmful to the environment and threaten labor rights in existing law. [13] This caused nationwide protests and riots involving workers and students.

See also

Related Research Articles

An appropriation bill, also known as supply bill or spending bill, is a proposed law that authorizes the expenditure of government funds. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In some democracies, approval of the legislature is necessary for the government to spend money.

The Three-fifths Compromise was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention over the inclusion of slaves in a state's total population. This count would determine: the number of seats in the House of Representatives; the number of electoral votes each state would be allocated; and how much money the states would pay in taxes. Slave holding states wanted their entire population to be counted to determine the number of Representatives those states could elect and send to Congress. Free states wanted to exclude the counting of slave populations in slave states, since those slaves had no voting rights. A compromise was struck to resolve this impasse. The compromise counted three-fifths of each state's slave population toward that state's total population for the purpose of apportioning the House of Representatives, effectively giving the Southern states more power in the House relative to the Northern states. It also gave slaveholders similarly enlarged powers in Southern legislatures; this was an issue in the secession of West Virginia from Virginia in 1863. Free blacks and indentured servants were not subject to the compromise, and each was counted as one full person for representation.

In legislative procedure, a rider is an additional provision added to a bill or other measure under the consideration by a legislature, which may or may not have much, if any, connection with the subject matter of the bill.

A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fundamental rights of a minority, but they can also hamper efforts to respond to problems and encourage corrupt compromises at times when action is taken. Changes to constitutions, especially those with entrenched clauses, commonly require supermajority support in a legislature. Parliamentary procedure requires that any action of a deliberative assembly that may alter the rights of a minority have a supermajority requirement, such as a two-thirds vote. In consensus democracy the supermajority rule is applied in most cases.

In public policy, a sunset provision or sunset clause is a measure within a statute, regulation or other law that provides for the law to cease to be effective after a specified date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend it. Unlike most laws that remain in force indefinitely unless they are amended or repealed, sunset provisions have a specified expiration date. This is not applicable in legal systems where the concept of desuetude applies.

In the Westminster system, a money bill or supply bill is a bill that solely concerns taxation or government spending, as opposed to changes in public law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997</span> United States tax cut law

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 was enacted by the 105th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The legislation reduced several federal taxes in the United States and notably created the Roth IRA.

Budget reconciliation is a special parliamentary procedure of the United States Congress set up to expedite the passage of certain federal budget legislation in the Senate. The procedure overrides the Senate's filibuster rules, which may otherwise require a 60-vote supermajority for passage. Bills described as reconciliation bills can pass the Senate by a simple majority of 51 votes or 50 votes plus the vice president's as the tie-breaker. The reconciliation procedure also applies to the House of Representatives, but it has minor significance there, as the rules of the House of Representatives do not have a de facto supermajority requirement. Because of greater polarization, gridlock, and filibustering in the Senate in recent years, budget reconciliation has come to play an important role in how the United States Congress legislates.

In certain jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other Westminster-influenced jurisdictions, as well as the United States and the Philippines, primary legislation has both a short title and a long title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">District of Columbia federal voting rights</span> Suffrage and representation of the United States capital

Voting rights of citizens in the District of Columbia differ from the rights of citizens in the 50 U.S. states. The United States Constitution grants each state voting representation in both houses of the United States Congress. It defines the federal district as being outside of any state, and does not grant it any voting representation in Congress. The Constitution grants Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the District in "all cases whatsoever".

The Constitution of Arkansas is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Arkansas delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Arkansas' original constitution was adopted at a constitutional convention held at Little Rock in advance of the territory's admission to the Union in 1836. In 1861 a constitution was adopted with succession. After the American Civil War its 1864 constitution was drafted.An 1868 constitution was passed to comply with the Reconstruction acts. The current constitution was ratified in 1874 following the Brooks–Baxter War.

The constitutional basis of taxation in Australia is predominantly found in sections 51(ii), 90, 53, 55, and 96, of the Constitution of Australia. Their interpretation by the High Court of Australia has been integral to the functioning and evolution of federalism in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States congressional conference committee</span> U.S. House and Senate committees formed to resolve disagreements on bills

A conference committee is a joint committee of the United States Congress appointed by the House of Representatives and Senate to resolve disagreements on a particular bill. A conference committee is usually composed of senior members of the standing committees of each house that originally considered the legislation.

The single-subject rule is a rule in the constitutional law of some jurisdictions that stipulates that some or all types of legislation may deal with only one main issue. One purpose is to avoid complexity in acts, to avoid any hidden provisions that legislators or voters may miss when reading the proposed law. Another is to prevent legislators attaching an unpopular provision ("rider") to an unrelated popular one, whether in the hope of sneaking the unpopular one through, or in the hope of causing the popular one to be rejected.

The Origination Clause, sometimes called the Revenue Clause, is Article I, Section 7, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The clause says that all bills for raising revenue must start in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate may propose or concur with amendments, as in the case of other bills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jody Wilson-Raybould</span> Canadian politician

Jody Wilson-Raybould, also known by her initials JWR and by her Kwak’wala name Puglaas, is a Canadian lawyer, author, and former politician who served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the British Columbia (BC) riding of Vancouver Granville from 2015 to 2021. She was initially elected as a member of the Liberal Party – serving as justice minister and attorney general from 2015 to 2019, and briefly as veterans minister and associate national defence minister in 2019 – until she was expelled from caucus amid the SNC-Lavalin affair. She continued to sit in Parliament as an Independent and was reelected in 2019, but did not run in 2021. Before entering federal politics, she was a BC provincial Crown prosecutor, a treaty commissioner and regional chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Premiership of Justin Trudeau</span>

The premiership of Justin Trudeau began on November 4, 2015, when the first Cabinet headed by Justin Trudeau was sworn in by Governor General David Johnston. Trudeau was invited to form the 29th Canadian Ministry and become Prime Minister of Canada following the 2015 election, where Trudeau's Liberal Party won a majority of seats in the House of Commons of Canada, defeating the Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. In both federal elections of 2019 and 2021, Trudeau was re-elected with minority governments; with his party losing the popular vote twice.

The single subject amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would impose the single-subject rule on federal legislation, limiting the content of bills introduced in Congress to a single subject. The amendment would have the effect of limiting legislative tactics such as logrolling, earmarks, and pork barrel spending. It would also discourage the use of very long omnibus spending bills which are difficult for legislators to read and analyze in the time frame needed for a vote, and to which unrelated riders are often added late in the legislative process. As of 2016, 41 states have single-subject rules in their state constitutions, but the federal Congress has no such rule. Many of these state and local provisions are over a century old, and litigation is often used to enforce the provisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deferred prosecution agreement (Canada)</span>

In Canada, a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) or remediation agreement refers to an agreement under Part XXII.1 of the Criminal Code. The agreement is made between the Crown prosecutor and an organization alleged to have committed certain types of criminal offences, usually in the context of fraud or corruption, with the consent of the relevant Attorney General and under the supervision of a judge. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the Crown prosecutor can agree to defer bringing a prosecution for the alleged offences if the organization takes steps to improve its conduct, makes restitution, and implements internal controls to avoid a repetition of the conduct.

The SNC-Lavalin affair is a political scandal involving attempted political interference with the justice system by the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Parliament of Canada's Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion found that Trudeau improperly influenced then Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in an ongoing criminal case against Quebec-based construction company SNC-Lavalin by offering a deferred prosecution agreement.

References

  1. ↑ "Omnibus bills in Hill history". Lorne Gunter. Sun Media. 18 June 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  2. ↑ "Omnibus Legislation, AKA the 'Big Uglies' – Is this the right move for Congress now? By Mark Pacilio". Utica College Center of Public Affairs and Election Research.
  3. ↑ Niedzwiadek, Nick; Lippman, Daniel. "'Big Ugly' murmurs arise in Albany — New York City investigating parking pre-crime — Iowa poll brutal for Gillibrand, worse for de Blasio". POLITICO.
  4. ↑ "Omnibus act 1993". Real Estate Agent.
  5. ↑ John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (1956), chapter IV.
  6. ↑ Arkansas (on June 22, 1868), Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina (on June 25, 1868).
  7. ↑ Urback, Robyn (15 August 2019). "A Prime Minister's Office drunk on its own arrogance: Robyn Urback". CBC.
  8. ↑ "Bill C-74". Parliament of Canada.
  9. ↑ Omnibus law (In Serbian)
  10. ↑ "Govt to limit Labour position on TPP bill". Patrick O'Meara, Economics Correspondent. RNZ. 5 Feb 2016. Retrieved 7 Feb 2015.
  11. ↑ "New Zealand: Trans-Pacific Partnership Bill Passed". Library of Congress . 22 November 2016.
  12. ↑ Constitution of Australia, s. 55
  13. ↑ Paddock, Richard C.; Suhartono, Muktita (2020-10-02). "Indonesia's Stimulus Plan Draws Fire From Environmentalists and Unions". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-10-06.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.