I'm Just a Bill

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"I'm Just a Bill" is a Schoolhouse Rock! segment which first aired in 1975. It is sung by Jack Sheldon (the voice of the Bill) and his son (the boy learning the process). It is about how a bill becomes a law, how it must go through Congress, and how it can be vetoed, etc. The Bill is for the law that school buses must stop at train crossings. In the end, the Bill becomes a law.

[edit] 2007 reference to the cartoon in the United States Senate

Criticizing a comprehensive immigration reform bill, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)., critiqued the proposed legislation for three hours on May 21, 2007 in front of "a giant picture of a famous scene from Schoolhouse Rock's 'I'm just a bill' skit."^[1] The caption on the picture was "How a Senate Bill Becomes a Law."^[2] Sessions pointed out how the reform bill had proceeded through the Senate in contrast with what educational material like the cartoon had laid out, saying "[ Hugh Hewitt has written that this is] Not what we were taught in grade school, I assure you, and I couldn’t agree more. This is not how the process is supposed to work. We should not be asked to trust our colleagues and vote to put a bill on the floor when we do not know that the bill text is even finalized, that the bill has not been drafted by legislative counsel, the bill has not been introduced or even given a bill number, the committee process was skipped and not followed, a Congressional Budget Office score may not have been requested."^[3]

[edit] Parodies

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"I'm Just a Bill" has been parodied several times:

In the The Simpsons episode "The Day the Violence Died," there is a Constitutional amendment that tries to ban flag burning. Sheldon voiced the Amendment character, parodying his own earlier performance.
In the Drawn Together episode "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education," the character called the Board of Education is a parody of the Bill.
In the Family Guy episode "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington," there is a brief appearance by the Bill sitting on Capitol Hill singing the lines to his song, until a janitor kills him with a pointed paper pole and puts him in a garbage basket.
In the Johnny Bravo short "Red Faced in the White House," the character can be briefly seen reciting the eponymous song; the Bill is voted down, and is abruptly torched by a flamethrower-wielding caricature of then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. "Tough luck, kid."
"I'm Just a Bill" is referenced within another Schoolhouse Rock! episode: at the end of "Tyrannosaurus Debt", the Bill is shown running away from the dinosaur.