I’m just a bill: The legislative process behind creating Georgia’s first national park

It takes a literal act of Congress to create a national park. Sponsored by both Georgia senators, S.4216 (more commonly referred to as the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Establishment Act) has to go through a complicated process before it hopefully hits President Joe Biden’s desk. 

“It goes back to the Schoolhouse Rock song of how a bill becomes a law,” Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative executive director Seth Clark said. “There are a lot of asterisks, though.”

The federal legislative process differs from the state level, Clark said. The bill is placed in a committee, where it has to be heard as written once with no amendments. The committee also has to hear from the agency the legislation impacts.

“You can generally tell if you’re going to have trouble in those hearings if you have members asking questions, if there’s discontent,” Clark said.

In May, the bill was heard by the national parks subcommittee of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where it received support from the National Parks Service.

“The agency supported the intent. There was an eloquent case for it from Sen. Jon Ossoff,” Clark said. “The chairman of the subcommittee Sen. Angus King expressed support for it.”

The bill then goes through a markup process, where technical amendments are made. A markup hearing has not been scheduled yet.

That’s just in the Senate. A companion piece of legislation, H. R. 8182, was introduced into the U.S. House by a slew of Georgia representatives led by Rep. Austin Scott. It has yet to have a hearing.

Once the bill gets out of committee in either branch, it is eligible to be heard on the floor and added to an omnibus piece of legislation, a big package of bills that Congress passes.  

If one of the chambers alters the bill significantly, advocates will support the bill in the other chamber. That would result in the legislation going to a conference committee of Representatives and Senators to reconcile differences between the two pieces of legislation before final
passage.

“They have more than enough time to get it sent to the President before the end of Congress in December,” Clark said. “I believe the Georgia delegation has enough pull, they intend to get it done this year.”