A must pass bill is a measure, considered vitally important, that must be passed and enacted by the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
(e.g. funding for a function of government). Because of the time-sensitive nature of these
bills, they are often amended with policy provisos, or '
riders', unrelated to the principal function of the bill itself. These riders can become law given the president's lack of
line-item veto
The line-item veto, also called the partial veto, is a special form of veto power that authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. Many countries have different ...
power.
These measures can also be exploited by the
executive branch
The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a State (polity), state.
In poli ...
as was the case with
former President Trump's border wall funding. The President claimed he would
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
a spending bill that did not include $5.7 billion in border wall funding. The inability of the United States Congress to organize a bill that would have passed both chambers, with President Trump's requirements, resulted in a
35-day federal government shutdown between 2018 and 2019. In this case, the policy rider actually became a so-called
poison pill as the added legislation was so controversial that it severely limited the possibility of the bill passing.
Another example of a must pass bill is legislation that raises the federal government's borrowing limit, known as the debt ceiling. Without passage, the federal government would no longer be able to borrow money to pay its bills, which experts conclude would have damaging effects on the global economy.
References
Terminology of the United States Congress
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