{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr395-115/featured_one-subject-at-a-time-act-1492015671.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr395-115/featured_large_one-subject-at-a-time-act-1492015671.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr395-115.png"},"introduced_on":"2017-01-10","title_override":"Should Each Bill in Congress Only Address One Subject?","summary_override":"

This bill would require each bill or joint resolution introduced in Congress to embrace only one subject, and that subject must be descriptively expressed in the legislation’s title. Aggrieved persons and members of Congress would have the right to sue the U.S. to seek relief, including an injunction, against the enforcement of a law passed in a manner that didn’t conform with the one subject requirement.

Appropriations bills would be prohibited from containing any general legislation or including any change of existing law requirements if the subject of a provision isn’t germane to the appropriation bill’s subject.

Legislation that meets the following criteria would be declared void:

An entire Act or joint resolution if its title addresses two or more unrelated subjects;
Provisions in legislation not clearly and descriptively expressed in the measure’s title;
Appropriation provisions in legislation outside the relevant subcommittee’s jurisdiction;
Provisions of appropriation bills not germane to their subject matter.

","official_title":"To end the practice of including more than one subject in a single bill by requiring that each bill enacted by Congress be limited to only one subject, and for other purposes.","short_title":"One Subject at a Time Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"One Subject at a Time Act\n\n This bill requires: (1) each bill or joint resolution to embrace no more than one subject, and (2) the subject to be clearly and descriptively expressed in the measure's title.\n\nAn appropriations bill may not contain any general legislation or change of existing law requirement if its subject is not germane to the subject of such bill.\n\nThe bill voids: (1) an entire Act or joint resolution if its title addresses two or more unrelated subjects, (2) provisions in legislation not clearly and descriptively expressed in the measure's title, (3) appropriation provisions in legislation outside the relevant subcommittee's jurisdiction, and (4) provisions of appropriation bills not germane to their subject matter.\n\nThe bill grants aggrieved persons and Members of Congress the right to bring an action against the United States to seek appropriate relief, including an injunction against the enforcement of any law the passage of which did not conform to this bill.","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.","impact":"The American public; Congressional staffers; and members of Congress.","argument_for":"For the sake of transparency, members of Congress need to stop writing and passing bills that address multiple unrelated policy issues. Multi-subject bills may deceptively include policies that lawmakers and the public overlook because of misleading titles.","argument_against":"It’s not practical to expect Congress to only introduce bills that deal with one subject area, they only have a finite amount of time in session and need to address a wide variety of policies. Combining unrelated, unobjectionable bills saves time.","bill_type":"hr","published":true,"type":"FederalBill","id":"hr395-115","bill_id":"hr395-115","formal_id":"H.R. 395","chamber":"house","congress":115,"last_action_at":"2017-02-06T00:00:00.000Z","active":false,"enacted":false,"enacted_at":null,"vetoed":false,"last_vote_at":null,"debated_on":null,"congress_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th/house-bill/395","plain_text_url":"https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-115hr395ih/html/BILLS-115hr395ih.htm","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr395-115.png","congress_full_text_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th/house-bill/395/text","is_current_congress":false,"last_version_on":"2017-01-10","related_bill_ids":[],"progress":"Introduced","house_passage_result":false,"senate_passage_result":false,"position_count":1726,"committees":[{"name":"Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSJU10","subcommittee":true},{"name":"Committee on the Judiciary","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSJU","subcommittee":false}],"links":{"rollCalls":"/api/roll_calls?bill_id=hr395-115","details":"/api/bills/hr395-115/details","sharingMessage":"/api/sharing_messages/hr395-115","positionsFor":"/api/bills/hr395-115/positions/for","positionsAgainst":"/api/bills/hr395-115/positions/against"},"upcoming":false,"cosponsors_count":27,"slug":"hr395-115-one-subject-at-a-time-act","latest_chamber_votes_id":null,"official_url":null,"target_video":true,"following":false,"vote_count":10409,"yea_vote_count":9603,"nay_vote_count":789,"passed_house":false,"passed_senate":false,"vote_id":null,"my_position_id":null,"topic_ids":["government"],"issue_ids":["government","congress-shenanigans","transparency"],"sponsor_id":2}],"votes":[],"issues":[{"id":"government","name":"Government","slug":"government","description":"Federal legislation related to the operations of the US Federal Government. 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","page_title":"Congress Shenanigans Legislation - Vote on Bills, Stay informed, Hold Your Reps Accountable","icons":{"black":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/congress-shenanigans/black_congress-shenanigans-1429042049.svg","grey":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/congress-shenanigans/grey_congress-shenanigans-1429042049.svg","white":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/congress-shenanigans/white_congress-shenanigans-1429042049.svg"},"cover_image_url":null,"is_following":false},{"id":"transparency","name":"Transparency","slug":"transparency","description":"Vote on the latest federal legislation regarding Transparency. Make your voice heard about the issues you care about. \r\n","page_title":"Transparency Legislation - Vote on Bills, Stay informed, Hold Your Reps Accountable","icons":{"black":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/transparency/black_transparency-1453508996.svg","grey":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/transparency/grey_transparency-1453508996.svg","white":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/transparency/white_transparency-1453508996.svg"},"cover_image_url":null,"is_following":false}],"users":[{"name":"Geoffrey","vote_count":89,"photos":{"large":"https://graph.facebook.com/10154672948313800/picture?width=150&height=150","small":"https://graph.facebook.com/10154672948313800/picture?width=75&height=75","tiny":"https://graph.facebook.com/10154672948313800/picture?width=20&height=20","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/10154672948313800/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/jW2VGweW/following","followers":"/api/users/jW2VGweW/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":17,"is_following":null,"influence_score":910,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":7,"following_count":6,"position_count":40,"id":"jW2VGweW","partner_id":null}],"bill_position":{"flagged":false,"id":"36594c4d-374a-417f-ae12-d4016b6a8b49","argument_for":"It's about time this got proposed! Hidden amendments that have no bearing on the original bill, commonly used to kill a bill, are a repugnant concept. Be a legislator.","argument_against":null,"show_argument_for":true,"show_argument_against":false,"upvote_count":0,"upvotes_for_count":0,"upvotes_against_count":null,"has_upvoted":false,"endorsement_count":0,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/positions/36594c4d-374a-417f-ae12-d4016b6a8b49"},"body":"It's about time this got proposed! Hidden amendments that have no bearing on the original bill, commonly used to kill a bill, are a repugnant concept. Be a legislator.","stance":"yea","created_at":"2017-04-12T23:12:52.909Z","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/positions/36594c4d-374a-417f-ae12-d4016b6a8b49.png","note_color":null,"note_text":null,"bill_id":"hr395-115","user_id":"jW2VGweW","endorser_ids":[]}}

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Should Each Bill in Congress Only Address One Subject?