RS20234
Expedited or
June 15, 1999
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Summary
Expedited or ''fast-track'' legislative procedures are special procedures that Congress adopts to promote timely committee and floor action on a specifically defined type of bill or resolution. For example, House and Senate consideration of budget resolutions and reconciliation bills are governed by fast-track procedures. Congress includes expedited procedures in bills that are enacted into law-the Congressional Budget Act, as amended, for example-instead of adopting them as part of the standing rules of the House or Senate. However, these procedures have the same force and effect that they would have if they were House or Senate rules. The regular legislative procedures of the House and Senate can be very time-consuming, and they provide no guarantee that every bill or resolution that is introduced will be considered quickly, or at all, in committee and on the floor. Most bills never are considered, and only a small fraction of them are passed by the House and Senate and enacted into law. Most of the time, most Representatives and Senators consider the slow and selective nature of the legislative process to be a virtue, in that it protects against enactment of new laws without adequate scrutiny and debate. In some cases, however, Members decide in advance that it will be important for Congress to act expeditiously on certain kinds of measures. So they devise special procedures that put those measures on a legislative fast track, and that protect them from being blocked or unduly delayed by any of the procedural obstacles that prevent most measures from completing all the stages of the legislative process.
