How a Bill Becomes a Law: My Pitch for a Documentary

How many of you have seen the School House Rock version of "How a Bill Becomes a Law"?

I would like to create a documentary that follows a bill from its inception to the day it becomes a law (or the day that it dies). Maybe we would start by following a group of people who sit down with their congress person and really come up with a good idea for creating national health care (or some such thing).

In the documentary we would capture what happens on the floors of both houses and in the committees, the arguments, the dull procedure. This would be filled in with interviews of congresspeople who support and oppose the law. We will explore all of the amendments that get added to the bill as it goes along... you get the idea. I've often complained in the last couple of months as campaign ads have consumed the airwaves, that they make people so ignorant about how laws get made in this country, about how complicated the process really is.

I would want my audience to learn just how complicated the whole process is, and how convoluted. I want them to see that all kinds of sub-bills that are unrelated to the spirit of the original bill get attached to it. I want people to see that its often these attachments that lead to a bill's death, and not the original good idea. I want people to see the lobbyists going to work on the bill.

In interviewing members of congress, I would ask them to comment on the bill that the film is focusing on: their opinion of it, whether or not the original idea of it is a good one (and why), how it would have to change for them to vote for it, what would have to be added to it for them to vote for it.

Then I would ask them to tell me about the craziest attachment to a bill that they've ever heard of. Responses might be something like, "We were supposed to be working on a bill to pay for food for the military... an amendment was added that would have required all the packets of food to be labeled with the words, Brought to you by the Republican Majority. Well I just couldn't vote for that." Any good responses to this question could be used as vignettes throughout the documentary and could end with the line, "I'm just a bill, waiting here on capital hill" from "School House Rock."

I think what would be most difficult about making this documentary would be that congresspeople and lobbyists alike will probably not provide access--there isn't a whole lot of incentive to showing how a bill really becomes a law. If we knew "the truth" (or at least tasted the complexity), how would they run those commercials saying, "He voted against body armor for our troops"? They wouldn't be able to, because people would know that he really voted against something unreasonable that had been attached as an amendment...

For a spoof of the classic "School House Rock" see the "Simpson's" clip below--this one's about amendments to the constitution.