Christmas Tree Bill

Few sessions of Congress have gone by without passage of a “Christmas tree bill,” so called because it was adorned with amendments like baubles on a holiday tree.

The traditional Christmas tree bill was a minor measure passed by the House, on which the Senate hung a variety of unrelated amendments providing benefits for special interests. The amendments most often involved tax or trade treatment. Enactment of these bills often came as Congress was preparing to adjourn for the winter holidays.

Russell B. Long, chair of the Senate Finance Committee from 1965 to 1981, claimed to be the originator of the Christmas tree bill. The prototype was a measure passed in 1966, in the Louisiana Democrat’s second year as committee chair. The original purpose of the bill was to help the United States solve its balance-of-payments difficulties. But Long’s committee transformed it into a gem of legislative vote trading and congressional accommodation that aided, among others, presidential candidates, the mineral ore industry, large investors, hearse owners, and Scotch whisky importers.

The Christmas tree bill in its traditional form became less common beginning in the 1980s. Members of Congress preferred to tuck special-interest amendments into huge Omnibus Bills where their presence was unlikely to be noticed. Emergency funding measures, called continuing resolutions, became magnets for unrelated amendments because they had to be passed quickly to keep government agencies from shutting down. (See Continuing Resolution.)