If the House passes legislation, can the Senate refuse to accept it?

[kentuck]

Can Mitch McConnell simply say, " Don't send anything over here that the President will not sign"?

Is that the way it is supposed to work?

Aren't they supposed to fix what they disagree with and send it back to the House for reconciliation?

One might ask, has our government fallen apart?

All the Democrats can do is pass a bill to open the government and send it to the Senate. The Senate does not have the authority to write legislation for the House.

At least, that's what I have always thought?

[SFnomad]

1. Neither the House nor the Senate can "write" legislation for the other

But, either can take what the other wrote and vote on it. I don't think that happens often. Usually both houses create legislation independently and then go to conference to work out the differences between their respective bills, then both houses vote on that compromise bill. And just because the House votes for something, doesn't mean the Senate has to take it up ... or vise versa. How many times did the House vote to dismantle the ACA, only to have the Senate ignore it.

There is one exception to all this ... the Origination Clause of the Constitution ... it states "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills". There is of course a way around this Origination Clause ... if the House has a bill they wrote and sent to the Senate, the Senate can gut the entire bill, keep its name and number and completely re-write the bill and vote on it. That bill would then typically go back to the House to be voted on. I know this has happened on at least a few occasions.

[kentuck]

2. If the Senate ignores a bill to open the government?

Then who gets the blame?

They seem to be playing Russian roulette with our government?

Cannot the Democrats say, "We passed legislation to open our government but the Senate and the White House refuse to consider it"? What more can they do?

Republicans are very good at shifting blame.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Such a bill wouldn't be to end the shutdown, but to fund the government...

which would end the shutdown. As with any bill, each house can act on it or ignore it. Usually, they try to work out a bill they can both agree to and send it to the president to sign.

As far as "blame" goes, fingers would be pointing all over the place, just as they are now. They have already agreed on funding, but Trump keeps moving the goalposts and refuses to sign, so the blame is squarely on him, if anyone actually cares.

Ideally, they can vote to override Trump's veto, but that requires 2/3 of each house, and if they could get that, why not just impeach the bastard...

[SFnomad]

4. Blame is a political game ... who you believe is at fault depends on how you view things n/t

[Joe941]

5. The house has already sent 2 Bill's to the senate.

One without the wall and one with the wall.

[kentuck]

6. What might happen?

The House could offer a compromise of $2.5 billion, meeting Trump halfway in his $5 billion demand. However, it should be spent on "Border Security", not on a "Wall". Would Trump accept that? Probably not?

What other options do the Democrats have?

[walkingman]

7. What other options? Just pass the previous option that Trump had previously agreed

[allgood33]

8. Mitch doesn't have to bring it to the floor for a vote. But then it's all on him.

[quaker bill]

9. in short, yes, they absolutely can.

It is not so much "accepting" or "not accepting". The Senate gets the Bill but is under no obligation to take up the Bill from the House and work on it or ever bring it to a vote. It has been done often. At then end of the session, these bills die.

[beachbum bob]

10. Its up to the Senate Majority leader for votes on ANY house bill or their own with a few exceptions

but the bottom line. NO DEMOCRATIC HOUSE bill will see a vote in the Senate unless McConnel.Trump agrees

[Wounded Bear]

11. They did it for 8 years under Obama...

[kentuck]

12. But shutting down the government is another matter...

In effect, holding the country hostage to our legislative process.