Which specific bills were brought to the floor via successful discharge petitions in U.S. House history, and what became law?
Executive summary
A discharge petition is an uncommon but consequential parliamentary tool that forces a bill out of committee and onto the House floor when 218 members sign; historically only a handful of measures reached the floor this way and far fewer became law, though the tactic has produced notable statutes in 1938, 1960, 2002, 2015 and, most recently, in 2024–25 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. The record shows both the petition’s rarity and its outsized political leverage: leadership often yields before a petition completes, and a successful petition can either be the final push to enactment or merely the mechanism that exposes floor-level bipartisan support [2] [7] [6].
1. The long arc: Two early laws and a pattern of rarity
Discharge petitions date to the early 20th century, and while dozens of bills have been pried loose from committees and many have passed the House after discharge, only two early examples — the Wages and Hours Act of 1938 and the 1960 federal pay raise bill — actually became law after being forced out by discharge drives, illustrating the mechanism’s historic rarity in producing enacted statutes [2].
2. The modern era: Shays‑Meehan (McCain‑Feingold) and the Export‑Import Bank reauthorization
In the post‑signature‑transparency era, two high‑profile successful discharges produced laws: the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (commonly called Shays‑Meehan in the House, McCain‑Feingold in the Senate) reached the floor via discharge in 2002 and ultimately became law, and a 2015 discharge petition forced a House vote that led to reauthorization of the Export‑Import Bank’s charter and enactment [3] [4] [8].
3. The 118th Congress: new successes in a fractious House
A surge of successful discharges in the 118th Congress — enabled by razor‑thin majorities and intra‑party fractures — produced at least two pieces of legislation that became law: a May 2024 disaster‑relief tax bill moved by a Freedom Caucus–led petition that passed the House 382–7, cleared the Senate by unanimous consent, and was signed into law, and a September 2024 petition that freed a Social Security fix for seniors which passed the House 352–75, passed the Senate 76–20, and was signed into law, later designated Public Law No. 118‑273 [5] [6].
4. Counts, mechanics and why the tactic matters despite scarcity
Across modern history discharge petitions are filed frequently but rarely succeed to enactment: analyses report hundreds of petitions filed across decades, only a minority hit the 218 signature threshold, and still fewer become law — older tallies cite dozens of petitions achieving the threshold and only a handful translating into statutes, reflecting procedural hurdles (30 legislative days, public signatures, and floor scheduling rules) that make the device politically potent even when not used to completion [6] [4] [1].
5. Political leverage and competing interpretations
Scholars and practitioners disagree about the petition’s role: some see it as an essential check on committee and leadership gatekeeping that empowers rank‑and‑file members, while others argue it is a blunt instrument that can be exploited for narrow factional goals and that leadership often blunts the tactic by conceding floor action before petitions need full exposure, turning the petition more into leverage than a consistent route to law [7] [2] [9].
6. What became law — the short list
Based on historical and contemporary reporting, the specific bills and statutes that became law after being brought to the floor via successful discharge petitions include at least the Wages and Hours Act of 1938 and the 1960 federal pay raise bill in the mid‑20th century, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, the Export‑Import Bank reauthorization in 2015, and the recent 2024–25 measures (the disaster‑relief tax bill and the Social Security senior benefits fix ultimately enacted and identified in official records as Public Law No. 118‑273) [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].