But the current Republican majority has made no secret of preferring to write legislation in conference and to send it back to each chamber for an up-or-down vote, without the prospect of amendments.
The likely prospect of amendments, combined with a slew of other must-do business for the lameduck Congress, leave the bill's fate up in the air.
Though the proposition mentions the prospect of an amendment, it does not include any concrete amendment language, so it is unclear exactly what reforms it's designed to inspire.
Also complicating speedy passage is the prospect of several amendments that could force the measure back to the House for a second vote.
On the prospect of the new amendment being used to bury nuclear waste, the Decc spokeswoman said the amendment gave the right to put substances into deep-level land only in the context of exploiting gas and petroleum.
Similar to the expedited, streamlined consideration of regulations under the Congressional Review Act and trade deals under trade promotion authority, Congress would vote up or down on the presidential recommendation for a carbon tax adjustment, without the prospect of filibuster or amendment.
The New York Times of April 29 , 1917 carried a feature article on the question, in which it quoted Gibbons as saying: "I would regard the passage of a Federal prohibition law as a national catastrophe, little short of a crime against the spiritual and physical well-being of the American people". As the prospect of a constitutional amendment drew closer he stepped up his opposition.
Lawyers who represent low-income homeowners, particularly legal services attorneys, are horrified at the prospect of Mack's amendment sailing through an election-bound Congress.
While the prospect of a constitutional amendment is mostly a fool's errand, I think in the area of guns, it might be one of those areas that such an amendment could happen.
But free speech advocates warned that the power to shut down whole sites, rather than current powers to remove infringing content, created the prospect of widespread First Amendment violations, while tech experts noted that the anti-piracy tools envisioned by the legislation would threaten the basic functionality of the web.
Fears among senior Liberal Democrats about the coalition with the Tories were brought into the open yesterday as Simon Hughes, the party's newly elected deputy leader, raised the prospect of tabling rebel amendments to the finance bill.
