As we noted here before, this is a “shell bill.” It was introduced as one thing (TARP taxes), became another thing (an aviation bill), and is now a batch of spending policies. (Cost: about $125 per family)The most recent version of the bill was produced when the Senate passed a “substitute amendment.” That’s an amendment that clips out everything in the bill and puts in all new text.
In the House and Senate, they often publish amendments ahead of time, and it looks like someone was in a rush to get the amendment together, because they left blank lines where the new name of the bill should have been.
[...]
[In] the Congressional Record, it says, “SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the “_______Act of______”.
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Well, THAT’s the amendment they brought up and passed, so the new name of the bill is the “_______Act of______.”
So the bill actually deals with Medicaid and taxes and creates an Education Jobs Fund and it's very specific stuff. But Congress rushed it through so quickly that apparently no one had time to fill in the title field at the top of the Microsoft Word bill template.[...]
And unless they wanted to start all over again, the House had to sign it in the exact same form, not changing a thing. And now that Obama has signed the bill, it is called the Blank Act of Blank.
I don't remember anything like this being involved in my "How a Bill Becomes a Law" lesson in elementary school.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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