Markup
The committee session where a bill is amended line by line and voted on before it can reach the floor.
A markup is the working session in which a committee takes a bill, considers amendments, and votes on whether to report it. The text that emerges is what the full chamber will actually debate, and it is frequently very different from what was introduced. For most legislation this is the stage where the substance is settled.
Markups are where the real disagreements become visible, because amendments are offered and disposed of on the record. An amendment withdrawn after discussion, or adopted by voice vote without objection, often reveals more about a bill's prospects than the final tally does. The committee report that follows is the authoritative statement of what the committee intended.
A bill that never receives a markup is, in most cases, a bill that will not become law, whatever attention its introduction received. Watching which measures are scheduled for markup is a far better predictor of legislative outcomes than counting introductions or cosponsors, and it is the point at which a proposal starts on the path toward becoming an enrolled bill.
What the federal government did, once a day.
One email each weekday: the rules, filings, votes and Fed decisions that actually changed something, each one linked to the document it came from.