Gooseberry’s Rules on Politics #7

Never write a perfect bill.

“When I started, I wasn't even a bill, I was just an idea. Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called their local Congressman and he said, "You're right, there oughta be a law." Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress. And I became a bill…”
--Schoolhouse Rock “I’m Just a Bill”

Never write the perfect bill. If you do, I can guarantee someone will muck it about and fiddle with it until it resembles something no one can live with. Most of the time they do it just to smear their fingerprints on it.

Leave something for the committee to fix.

Require someone to do something outrageous they never would be able to do under normal constitutional circumstances. Require direct federal payments, or include a class of people that should not have even been considered -- someone like old people. Push the envelope, and then make it obvious you are willing to negotiate and let the committee make its counter proposal.

Chances are the bill will still not be perfect, but it will be something they will be willing to support. And it’s all really about getting the committee to support your bill because bills that don't have committee support go no where at all.

If you are not working with the committee, or if they direct you to a specific member’s office as in “we won’t move on that subject unless we get the support of Congressman X,” then do whatever you can to get Congressman X to come to the table and discuss the bill, even if he directly opposes it.

Once you get him to the table, give him the opportunity to make changes, any changes. Preferably lots and lots of changes. In fact, you want him to make so many changes and to invest so much time in the issue that he assumes personal responsibility for its very existence. With enough blood, sweat and tears invested in the process he will feel obligated to not only support the bill, but he will even be willing to lie down in front of a bus to get the committee to take the bill up for consideration.

Fortunately for you, the committee will be looking at an imperfect bill (that the Congressman X messed up greatly). Here you can be a great help to the committee by giving them an alternative draft (once again with an obvious fault that the committee can “fix” on its own) which the committee will undoubtedly adopt as its own personal proposal (make sure none of your fingerprints are on this particular draft). You then help Congressman X see the value of working with the committee draft in developing a “compromise” solution, one that will allow him to get a fantastic win on an issue in which he has already invested a boatload of time and effort . At this point, he won't even care what the final bill looks like, he will only want to demonstrate leadership on the issue.