Enactment of Prostitution bill

Prostitution
Bill
S. 667, 115 Congress
By Essence Perry &
Charlie Jackson

House
◎ There are 435 members, proportionate to the
population of each state.
◎ You must be 30 and a citizen for 9 years.
◎ The Speaker of the House is the most powerful
member of Congress and s/he preside over
debate, assign bills to committee, and keep order
over daily chamber/meeting.
◎ Majority leaders are the lead speakers for their
party during debate, develop the calendar, and
help the speaker with policy decisions.
◎ Minority leaders form and defend the position of
the minority party, and negotiation with
majority party.
◎ Majority whips count votes, check attendance,
assist leader, and communicate the position of
the party.
◎ Minority whips ensure attendance, count votes,
and provide assistance to the minority leader.

House Makeup
◎ Speaker of the House: Paul Ryan
(R-WI)
◎ Majority Leader: Kevin
McCarthy (R-CA)
◎ Minority Leader: Nancy Pelosi
(D-CA)
◎ Majority Whip: Steve Scalise (R-
LA)
◎ Minority Whip: Steny Hoyer (D-
MD)

Senate◎ There are 100 senators, two from each state.
◎ You must be 25 and a citizen for 7 years.
◎ The Senate President presides over the sessions
of the Senate, refers bills to committees, chooses
committee chairs and members, signs
legislation.
◎ The President Pro Tempore acts in the place of
the President of the Senate when she is absent.
◎ Majority leaders are the lead speakers for their
party during debate, develop the calendar, and
help the speaker with policy decisions.
◎ Minority leaders form and defend the position of
the minority party, and negotiation with
majority party.
◎ Majority whips count votes, check attendance,
assist leader, and communicate the position of
the party.
◎ Minority whips ensure attendance, count votes,
and provide assistance to the minority leader.

Senate Makeup
President of the Senate: Mike Pence
President Pro Tempore: Orrin
Hatch (R-UT)
Majority Leader: Mitch McConnell
(R-KY)
Minority Leader: Chuck Schumer
(D-NY)
Majority Whips: John Cornyn (R-
TX)
Minority Whip: Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Introducing the Bill
1. An interest group, Cinnamon and Spice and Everything Nice
(CSEN) contacted their U.S. Senator asking to legalize
prostitution. After hours of pouring through evidence,
Senator Perry (D-MA) drafting a bill that legalizes the act.
2. Senator Perry is recognized by the presiding officer and she
introduces her bill in Senate chambers and the Presiding
Officer orders the parliamentarian to assign the bill to HELP
committee because of jurisdictional mandate.
3. The bill is entered into the Senate Journal by the Journal
Clerk and given the number S666 by the Bill Clerk.

Reasons to Legalize
Prostitution
◎ Prostitutes are likely to experience violence, forcing them to rely
on pimps and madams for protection, who in turn abuse them.
State facilities eliminate the need for both and they offer
protection for prostitutes.
◎ Since prostitution is still illegal, prostitutes are forced to work
outside and on the streets, creating more dangers for prostitutes.
Indoor state facilities help curb this.
◎ The spread of STIs and other communicable diseases associated
with prostitution can be eliminated with forced health screenings.
◎ Its seen in countries that have legalized prostitution have reduced
rape and human trafficking rates significantly.
◎ Putting the practice out in the open makes it easier to police and
protect. It also allows for taxes to be collected.
◎ New wave feminism- stopping the government from encroaching
on women’s rights and “agency.”

Prostitution Bill Overview
1. Prostitution legalized
a. States are allowed to regulate prostitution and
facilities by create state-owned and run ones.
2. All current prostitutes and sex workers imprisoned
will have their sentences commuted.
a. Prostitutes are taken off of the sex-offenders list
if previously registered.
3. Prostitutes can file their sex work as a profession, so
long as they work in the state, and file taxes.
4. Prostitutes are able to receive health checks and
physicals for free.

Committee Action
1. The HELP Committee receives the bill and Chairman
Lamar Alexander (R-TN) refers it to the subcommittee of
Employment and Workplace Safety.
2. The subcommittee schedule public hearings that are open
to the a number of witnesses like academics and
members of the executive branch. The hearings allow the
senators to gather information to better legislate.
3. After the hearings are finished, the subcommittee meets
again to “mark up” the bill and review it line by line.
4. The senators revised the bill so much by adding
amendments that it became a clean bill, and it was
renumbered S667.

Committee Action
5. The subcommittee creates a report and makes their
recommendation to the full HELP committee, urging
the bill be moved from committee and to the floor for
a vote.
6. The HELP committee ratifies the subcommittee's
findings without further review, and they soon vote
the bill out of committee.
7. HELP creates a report summarizing the bill and the
findings from the testimony for the floor.
8. The two dissenting senators form a minority
dissenting report.
9. The reports are filed with the clerks to be scheduled.

Scheduling of the
Bill
1. Members of the Senate participate and
debate and eventually it is decided that the
Prostitution Bill will be placed in the
Calendar of General Orders.

Floor Action (Senate)
1. The bill was brought to the Senate floor for debate- a formal discussion
of the content of the bill. A quorum was met, and 67 senators were
present, exceeding the 51 Senators needed for business to be
conducted.
2. Over a series of debates, several amendments were added to the bill
and riders, which have no relevance to the bill’s content, were also
attached. Since the bill was controversial, unanimous consent wasn’t
called early (debate couldn’t be suspended). On the last day, almost all
the senators agreed about the amendments and were ready to vote for
the bill.
3. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stopped the Senate
from reaching unanimous consent. In response, he filibustered the bill,
attempting to obstruct the vote on the bill, therefore its passing.
4. After 30 minutes of filibustering, Senator McConnell could no longer
persist, and collapsed from exhaustion and old age. The Senate did not
need to invoke cloture to end the debate.
5. The bill passed with a simple majority voice vote of “ayes” and “noes”.

Amendments
1. In state run facilities, client's credit card numbers need to be taken
down, as well as some form of identification before they can use
facilities.
2. Prostitution isn’t legal if a prostitute isn’t using a state run facility.
3. A specific clause needs to be added about child sex labor,
prostitution cannot be legal for people under 18.
4. Pimping needs to be deemed illegal as well as prostitution rings.
5. If a prostitute refuses to submit to health tests, they are not
protected under the bill.
6. A portion of the revenue earned from the industry is used for the
sex workers wages, social benefits, pensions, health insurance, a
regular 40-hour-workweek, and the option to join sex worker
unions
7. The government has the right to tax all of the earnings of the
industry.
8. All prostitutes need to be registered and have an official license,
similar to doctors or lawyers.

Riders
1. A sexual education class must be taught in
health class from 5-12 grade.
2. All low income families (30,000 and under)
are able to receive free birth control.

Sending the Bill to
the House
The bill is sent to the next house to be approved.
5

Introducing the Bill
1. On the recommendation of Senator Perry,
Congressman Jackson (D-MA) drafted a similar bill
to the Prostitution Bill.
2. Congressman Jackson runs to the hopper (a
wooden box that holds bills on the clerk's desk) to
get his bill recognized and it is given a number and
name by the clerk H.R 114.
3. The Speaker of the House assigns the bill to the
Committee on Education and the Workforce.
4. The Education committee Leader refers the bill to
the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
subcommittee.

Committee Action (H)
1. The subcommittee holds hearings and listens to
testimony from similar witnesses as the the Senate to
learn more about the benefits and consequences of
legalizing prostitution.
2. After all of the hearings are complete, the markup period
happens and they make one amendment to the bill,
specifically with housing.
3. The subcommittee votes to report this bill and its changes
to the full Committee and they prepare a report.
4. The full committee meets again and they conduct one
interview again, with a professor from Denmark, and
then they soon vote to pass the bill through committee.

Committee Action (H)
5. No one in the committee disagrees with the bill.
6. The chairman of the committee tells the
committee to draft a report to send to the floor
describing the intent of the new legislation, how
it will affect other legislation, and how it will be
carried out through the executive branch.
7. The Rules Committee creates a rule for the bill
allocating the the time spent on debate and how
much it can be amended.

Scheduling of the
Bill (H)
1. The Bill is placed on the House Calendar
because the Prostitution Bill is a major bill
that doesn’t involve revenue.

Floor Action (House)
1. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) calls upon
ranking member of the Rules Committee, Rep. Louise
Slaughter (D-NY), to rule on how the bill will be
considered after it was introduced by Congressman
Jackson.
2. The bill rather than going directly to full House, is sent to
the Committee of the Whole, a committee with all House
members, for consideration. A quorum of 201 is met,
exceeding the 100 members needed for the Committee of
the Whole.
3. Speaker Ryan, as well as the leaders of both the majority
and minority parties in the House, including the Whips,
meet to discuss how the time is divided during the debate.

4. Speaker Ryan steps down, allowing the Chairman of
Ways and Means, Kevin Brady (R-TX), to preside
over the meeting.
5. The bill is once again read, section by section, and
debate ensues.
6. Each member is given a few minutes to speak on the
content of the bill if they so choose, after being
recognized by the Presiding Officer: Chairman Brady.
7. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-MA) accidentally goes over
her allotted time, unable to hear that her time was up
due to the noise made by the committee members.

8. Members that speak on the bill also get 5 minutes to
offer amendments once it is read again. The
amendments, unlike the riders, do have relevance to
the bill.
9. Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, demands a vote on the
bill, leaving only 40 minutes remaining for debate.
10. Debate in the House officially ends, and the Committee
of the Whole rises, and dissolves itself, returning to the
House, which adopts the decision of the committee.
11. The bill is voted on using a standing vote where first
those in favor of the bill stand, then those opposed.
The whips of each party count their party’s “nays and
yeas.”
12. The bill passes with a simple majority.

Conference Committee
1. After the bill passes through the House and Senate it is
sent to a conference committee to reconcile the
differences in riders and amendments in the bill.
2. The committee is comprised of members of both the
House and Senate, and together they work to reach an
agreement about the bill.
3. They write a report describing the changes they want to
make for the bill and an explanation of each viewpoint is
given.
4. The new bill easily passes through both the House and
Senate, and now it will be sent to the President to be
approved.
5. The bill is printed in parchment and signed by the
Speaker of House and the President of the Senate.

Presidential Action
1. Once Prostitution Bill S 667 is passed by both houses of the
115th Congress of the United States, it is sent to the White
House for the President to be approved.
2. Since he doesn’t have much experience passing legislation
without executive order, or knowledge of government, Trump’s
advisers explain to him that he can either sign the bill into law,
and it will instantly go into effect, or give a signing statement
which allows him to direct executive agencies on how he
believes the bill should be interpreted and implemented.
3. Additionally, his advisors also explain how he can kill the bill:
either through a veto, in which it will go back to Congress where
they can attempt to garner a ⅔ majority, or refuse to act on it all
together, a pocket veto.

Presidential Action
4. Rather than refusing to act on the bill, President Trump vetoes
it, sending it back to the Senate and the House where they can
attempt to override the veto.
5. If the Senate and House cannot get the ⅔ majority vote in order
to pass the bill into law and override the presidential veto, the
bill dies.
6. In a surprising result, both chambers pass the bill into law with
an override, ⅔ majority votes (or more) in each house of
Congress (71 in the Senate, 295 in the House).
7. PROSTITUTION IS LEGALIZED!

Enactment of Prostitution bill

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