Legislative Procedure

Congress moved the fiscal year to October 1 in 1974 to buy itself three more months. Fiscal 2027 began this month on a stopgap anyway.

A federal surveillance law expired in June 2026 and the surveillance kept running anyway. Here's how sunset clauses actually end, or don't end, a law.

It's one of the oldest tricks in a legislature's toolbox: attach something so toxic to a bill that its own supporters end up voting it down.

The House minority's last-ditch procedural motion used to force real amendment votes. A 2021 rules change quietly stripped that power.

A discharge petition lets a House majority bypass its own leadership and force a floor vote, but it takes 218 signatures to even try. The tool sat mostly unused for two decades until 2025.