An omnibus bill is a proposed
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
that covers a number of diverse or unrelated topics. ''Omnibus'' is derived from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and means "to, for, by, with or from everything". An omnibus bill is a single
document
A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" or ...
that is accepted in a single
vote
Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
by a
legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
but packages together several measures into one or combines diverse subjects.
Because of their large size and scope, omnibus bills limit opportunities for
debate
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...
and
scrutiny
Scrutiny (French: ''scrutin''; Late Latin: ''scrutinium''; from ''scrutari'', meaning "those who search through piles of rubbish in the hope of finding something of value" and originally from the Latin "scruta," meaning "broken things, rags, or ...
. Historically, omnibus bills have sometimes been used to pass controversial
amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...
s. For this reason, some consider omnibus bills to be
anti-democratic.
United States
In the United States, omnibus bills are sometimes known as "Big Ugly" bills. Examples include
reconciliation
Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to:
Accounting
* Reconciliation (accounting)
Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture
* ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...
bills, combined
appropriations bills, and private relief and claims bills.
Appropriations legislation
Omnibus legislation is routinely used 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 ...
to group together the budgets of all departments in one year in an omnibus spending bill. For example, the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (or OBRA-93) was a federal law that was enacted by the 103rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 10, 1993. It has also been unofficially referred to as the Def ...
was designed to help reduce the federal deficit by approximately $496 billion over five years through restructuring of the tax code.
Historical examples
During the 19th century, there were three notable omnibus bills in the US.
The
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–Am ...
had five disparate provisions designed by Senator
Henry Clay
Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...
of
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. His purpose was to pacify sectional differences that threatened to provoke the secession of the
slave state
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were not. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states ...
s. The
Fugitive Slave Act
A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also kno ...
was the most infamous of the five compromise components, and was almost universally excoriated by
abolitionists
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
, the chief exception being Sen.
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison, ...
of
who prioritized preservation of the
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
. Senator
Thomas Hart Benton, a
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
slaveholder, opposed the omnibus compromise as an "unmanageable mass of incongruous bills, each an impediment to the other...." While this bill did not pass as the official Compromise of 1850, it got the ball rolling. To satisfy members of Congress,
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...
separated the Compromise back into 5 separate bills and got it passed. Ultimately, disunion and civil war were delayed for a decade. In response, the 1861
Constitution of the Confederate States
The Constitution of the Confederate States was the supreme law of the Confederate States of America. It was adopted on March 11, 1861, and was in effect from February 22, 1862, to the conclusion of the American Civil War (May 1865). The Confede ...
would ban omnibus legislation, requiring that every bill "shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title" (Article 1, Section 9.20).
The Omnibus Act of June 1868 admitted seven southern
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
s as having satisfied the requirements of the
Reconstruction Acts
The Reconstruction Acts, or the Military Reconstruction Acts, (March 2, 1867, 14 Stat. 428-430, c.153; March 23, 1867, 15 Stat. 2-5, c.6; July 19, 1867, 15 Stat. 14-16, c.30; and March 11, 1868, 15 Stat. 41, c.25) were four statutes passed duri ...
.
The Omnibus Act of February 22, 1889 provided for the admission of four new states to the Union —
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
,
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
,
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
.
Canada
In Canada, one famous omnibus bill became the
Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69
The ''Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968–69'' (french: Loi de 1968–69 modifiant le droit pénal) was an omnibus bill that introduced major changes to the Canadian ''Criminal Code''. An earlier version was first introduced as Bill C-195 by then-M ...
, a 126-page, 120-clause amendment to the
Criminal Code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
passed under the leadership of
Pierre Elliot Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and ...
who was then Justice Minister in the government of
Lester Pearson. This Act changed the law of the land in matters as diverse as
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
,
prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
,
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
,
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
,
gun control
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...
and
drunk driving.
Likewise,
Jobs and Growth Act (2012).
The
SNC-Lavalin affair, which entailed the censure of
Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
by the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner, was started when the firm suggested to Trudeau that he include in his spring 2018 budget bill the
deferred prosecution agreement A deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), which is very similar to a non-prosecution agreement (NPA), is a voluntary alternative to adjudication in which a prosecutor agrees to grant amnesty in exchange for the defendant agreeing to fulfill certain ...
measure that then-
Attorney-General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Wilson-Raybould refused to sanction, culminating in her January 2019 ouster from government and the subsequent scandal that surrounded it.
The
Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act
The ''Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act'' (french: Loi sur la tarification de la pollution causée par les gaz à effet de serre) is a Canadian federal law establishing a set of minimum national standards for carbon pricing in Canada to meet ...
was created during the
42nd Parliament of Canada
The 42nd Canadian Parliament was in session from December 3, 2015, to September 11, 2019, with the membership of its lower chamber, the House of Commons of Canada, having been determined by the results of the 2015 Canadian federal election, 2015 ...
under the mask of the
Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1
A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environment ...
in ''Part 4''. The
SNC-Lavalin affair was created as ''Division 20 of Part 6''.
Other countries
In the Republic of Ireland, the
Second Amendment of the Constitution was an omnibus constitutional law, enacted in 1941, that made many unrelated changes to the country's fundamental law.
In Serbia,
Omnibus law was adopted in 2002 that regulated the autonomous status of
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital ...
.
Similarly, in New Zealand, an omnibus bill was passed in November 2016 that enacted legislation required for New Zealand to enter the
Trans Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, was a highly contested proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singa ...
.
Section 55 of the Constitution of Australia
The constitutional basis of taxation in Australia is predominantly found in sections 51(ii), Legislative powers of the Parliament. 90, Exclusive power over customs, excise, and bounties. 53, Powers of the Houses in respect of legislation. 55, Tax ...
requires that laws imposing taxation "deal only with the imposition of taxation" and "deal with one subject of taxation only" (except those relating to customs and excise); other purported provisions in a piece of tax legislation are of no legal effect. This does not outlaw all omnibus bills, but renders unconstitutional any omnibus bill imposing taxation.
In October 2020, the
People's Representative Council
The People's Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia ( id, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, DPR-RI), also known as the House of Representatives, is one of two elected chambers of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), ...
of
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
passed the
Omnibus Law on Job Creation
The Job Creation Act ( id, UU Cipta Kerja), officially Law Number 11/2020 on Job Creation (''Undang-Undang Nomor 11 Tahun 2020 Tentang Cipta Kerja'', or UU 11/2020), is a bill that was passed on 5 October 2020 by Indonesia's People's Represent ...
, a controversial omnibus law that aims to attract foreign investment and reduce business regulation, which the opponents say would be harmful to the environment and threaten labor rights in existing law.
This caused
nationwide protests and riots involving workers and students.
See also
*
Omnibus law (Serbia)
The politics of Vojvodina function within the framework of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The province has a legislative Assembly of Vojvodina, assembly composed of 120 proportionally elected members, and a Government of Vojvodina, ...
*
Omnibus law (Indonesia)
*
Single-subject rule
The single-subject rule is a rule in the constitutional law of some jurisdictions that stipulates that some or all types of legislation may deal with only one main issue. One purpose is to avoid complexity in acts, to avoid any hidden provisions t ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Omnibus definition
Canadian federal legislation
*Omnibus bill