United States Senate

===Legislation===
{{Further|Act of Congress}}
Bills may be introduced in either chamber of Congress. However, the Constitution's [[Origination Clause]] provides that "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Constitution of the United States |url=https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#a1_sec7 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210235825/http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#a1_sec7 |archive-date=February 10, 2014 |access-date=January 1, 2012 |publisher=Senate.gov}}</ref> As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes. Furthermore, the House of Representatives holds that the Senate does not have the power to originate [[appropriation bill]]s, or bills authorizing the expenditure of federal funds.<ref name="Saturno">{{Congressional Research Service|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31399.pdf|article=The Origination Clause of the U.S. Constitution: Interpretation and Enforcement|author=James V. Saturno}}</ref><ref name="Wirls">Wirls, Daniel and Wirls, Stephen. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ifzWY2ZrNBAC&pg=PA188 The Invention of the United States Senate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212083755/https://books.google.com/books?id=ifzWY2ZrNBAC&pg=PA188|date=February 12, 2021}}'' (Taylor & Francis 2004). p. 188</ref><ref>[[Woodrow Wilson]] wrote that the Senate has extremely broad amendment authority with regard to appropriations bills, as distinguished from bills that levy taxes. See Wilson, Woodrow. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=eWBJfdV_jv8C&q=originate&pg=PA155 Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212083758/https://books.google.com/books?id=eWBJfdV_jv8C&lpg=PP1&dq=editions%3AXH62sjkuTc4C&pg=PA155 |date=February 12, 2021 }}'', pp. 155–156 (Transaction Publishers 2002).</ref><ref>According to the [[Library of Congress]], the Constitution provides the origination requirement for revenue bills, whereas tradition provides the origination requirement for appropriation bills. See Sullivan, John. "[http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.bysec/congress.html How Our Laws Are Made] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016045756/http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.bysec/congress.html |date=October 16, 2015 }}", Library of Congress (accessed August 26, 2013).</ref> Historically, the Senate has disputed the interpretation advocated by the House. However, when the Senate originates an appropriations bill, the House simply refuses to consider it, thereby settling the dispute in practice. The constitutional provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]], in which [[money bill]]s approved by Parliament have originated in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] per [[Constitutional conventions of the United Kingdom|constitutional convention]].<ref name="Sargent">Sargent, Noel. "[http://www.tifis.org/oclause/Sargent.pdf Bills for Raising Revenue Under the Federal and State Constitutions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107024316/http://www.tifis.org/oclause/Sargent.pdf |date=January 7, 2021 }}", ''[[Minnesota Law Review]]'', Vol. 4, p. 330 (1919).</ref>

Although the Constitution gave the House the power to initiate revenue bills, in practice the Senate is equal to the House in the respect of spending. As [[Woodrow Wilson]] wrote:

{{blockquote|The Senate's right to amend general appropriation bills has been allowed the widest possible scope. The upper house may add to them what it pleases; may go altogether outside of their original provisions and tack to them entirely new features of legislation, altering not only the amounts but even the objects of expenditure, and making out of the materials sent them by the popular chamber measures of an almost totally new character.<ref>Wilson ''Congressional Government'', Chapter III: "Revenue and Supply". Text common to all printings or "editions"; in ''Papers of Woodrow Wilson'' it is Vol.4 (1968), p.91; for unchanged text, see p. 13, ''ibid.''</ref>}}

The approval of both houses is required for any bill, including a revenue bill, to become law. Both Houses must pass the same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by sending amendments back and forth or by a [[United States congressional conference committee|conference committee]], which includes members of both bodies.