I. Introduction

In the Philippine constitutional system, every “Congress” is a distinct three-year term of the legislative department, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each Congress begins at noon on 30 June following the national elections and convenes its first regular session on the fourth Monday of July, as mandated by the 1987 Constitution.

Understanding what happens to bills and resolutions when a Congress ends is crucial for legislators, stakeholders, and the public. The fate of pending measures is governed by a mix of:

The 1987 Constitution,
The internal rules of the Senate and the House, and
Established legislative practice and jurisprudence.

This article surveys, in the Philippine context, what happens to different kinds of bills and resolutions when a Congress terminates—meaning the three-year term ends and a new Congress is elected and convened.

II. Constitutional Framework: Congress, Sessions, and Termination

A. The Structure and Term of Congress

Under Article VI of the 1987 Constitution:

Congress consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Senators serve six-year terms, with one-half elected every three years;
Members of the House serve three-year terms, with the entire House elected every three years.

The term of each Congress is usually referred to as the Xth, XIth, …, 19th Congress, and so on, covering a three-year period. When that three-year period ends (at noon of 30 June), the Congress “terminates” in the sense that its mandate expires and a new Congress is constituted.

B. Sessions vs. Congress

It is important to distinguish:

Sessions (regular and special):
- Regular session: begins on the fourth Monday of July and continues until 30 days before the opening of the next regular session, unless sooner adjourned.
- Congress may also be called to special sessions by the President.
Adjournment of a session vs termination of Congress:
- A session can adjourn temporarily (recess) or adjourn sine die (final adjournment of that session).
- Termination of a Congress is the end of the three-year term and the installation of a new set of Members of the House (and some Senators).

The fate of pending measures depends heavily on whether we are dealing with:

A recess or adjournment within the same Congress,
Adjournment sine die of a session but still within the same Congress, or
The expiration of the Congress itself.

This article focuses on termination of the Congress, but the distinction is necessary because pending bills can carry over between sessions of the same Congress, yet do not carry over to the next Congress.

III. The Legislative Process and Its Temporal Cut-Offs

A. Constitutional Requirements for Bills

Key constitutional provisions on the law-making process:

Three Readings on separate days in each House, with printed copies distributed to Members before passage (Article VI, Section 26).
A bill that has passed both Houses must be presented to the President (Article VI, Section 27).
If the President approves, it becomes law; if the President vetoes, it is returned to the House where it originated, and Congress may override by a two-thirds vote of each House.
If the President does not act on a bill within a specified period (especially when Congress adjourns), it may lapse into law.

These constitutional stages create natural cut-off points before a Congress ends:

Before a bill is finally approved by both Houses;
After final approval but before transmission to the President;
After transmission to the President but before expiration of the Congress;
After a presidential veto or lapse into law.

Each stage reacts differently to termination of Congress.

IV. General Principle: No Carry-Over of Bills and Resolutions to the Next Congress

As a matter of Philippine legislative practice and rules, bills and resolutions that have not been finally enacted by the time a Congress ends do not automatically carry over to the next Congress.

Instead, they are typically:

Marked as “pending at the end of Congress”, “archived”, or “terminated by adjournment sine die” in the legislative records; and
Must be re-filed in the new Congress if proponents wish to pursue them again.

This is often summarized as: “Bills die with the Congress that created them.”

While the Senate has sometimes asserted its status as a “continuing body” for certain limited purposes (e.g., rules, treaty concurrence, inquiries), this does not translate into automatic carry-over of ordinary bills. For practical purposes, both Houses treat their dockets as reset at the start of a new Congress.

V. Fate of Bills at Various Stages When Congress Terminates

Let us examine what happens when the three-year term of Congress ends, broken down by the stage of the bill.

A. Bills Still at the Committee Level

These are bills that:

Have been filed and referred to committee,
Possibly subject to hearings or technical working groups,
But no committee report has been approved or sponsored in plenary.

Upon termination of Congress:

Such bills are deemed terminated with that Congress.
They may be placed in an archive or simply remain recorded as “pending in committee; not acted upon before adjournment”.
To revive the proposal in the next Congress, a member must file a new bill, often with a new bill number, though the text may be identical or similar.

Committees cannot simply continue deliberations in the next Congress on old bills, because:

The composition of both the committees and the House/Senate may have changed;
Committee referrals are based on the internal organization of the new Congress; and
Legislative power belongs to the newly elected Congress, not its predecessor.

B. Bills on Second or Third Reading in One House Only

Here, a bill has:

Been approved at least on Second Reading, and possibly Third Reading, in one House;
But the other House has not yet approved it on Third Reading.

Upon termination of Congress:

Even if one House has completed its three readings, the bill has not yet become law and dies with the Congress.
The partial progress in one House does not carry over; the next Congress must treat the matter as entirely new, requiring fresh filing and new readings.

This is a direct consequence of bicameralism plus the end of the term: legislation must secure the approval of both Houses within the same Congress to proceed to the President.

C. Bills Under Bicameral Conference Committee

Where both Houses have passed their own versions of a bill and a Bicameral Conference Committee (bicam) has been convened, there are several possibilities:

Bicam still deliberating when Congress ends
- If the bicam has not completed its report and the term ends, the bill dies.
- The bicam itself ceases to exist with the Congress that formed it.
Bicam report approved by the committee but not yet ratified by either House, and Congress ends
- The bill still dies, because bicam reports must be ratified by both Houses before the measure is considered finally approved in Congress.
Bicam report ratified by one House but not the other before the term ends
- Again, lacking ratification by both Houses, the bill does not become an enrolled bill and dies with the Congress.

In all these scenarios, the incomplete bicameral process means there is no enrolled bill to transmit to the President. A similar measure can be re-filed in the next Congress, effectively starting from zero.

D. Enrolled Bills Already Transmitted to the President

Once a bill has:

Passed three readings in both Houses;
Any differences have been reconciled via bicam and ratified; and
The bill has been enrolled and transmitted to the President,

then the role of Congress in that bill’s passage is essentially complete.

Upon termination of Congress while the bill is with the President:

The termination of Congress does not invalidate the bill.
The President still has the constitutional period (which may be calculated differently depending on whether Congress is in session or adjourned) to:
- Sign the bill,
- Veto it, or
- Take no action, in which case it may lapse into law under the Constitution.

Thus, if the bill was properly passed and transmitted before Congress ended, the term’s expiration does not deprive the bill of the chance to become law.

E. Vetoed Bills and the Possibility of Override

If the President vetoes a bill, the Constitution allows Congress to override the veto by a two-thirds vote of all the members of each House.

The critical issue is timing:

The override must occur while Congress (the same Congress that passed the bill) is still in existence.
Once that Congress ends, the next Congress cannot “revive” a vetoed bill and override the veto, because:
- The bill belonged to the prior Congress;
- The new Congress is a separate constitutional body, with different membership and possibly different policy directions.

The veto, therefore, becomes final and conclusive once the Congress that passed the bill has terminated without an override.

F. Laws Already Passed Before Termination

If a bill has become law—either by presidential signature or by lapse into law—before termination of Congress, the end of the term has no effect on that law. It remains on the statute books until:

Repealed by a later law;
Declared unconstitutional by the courts; or
Superseded by subsequent legislation.

VI. Fate of Resolutions

Not all measures in Congress are bills. There are several types of resolutions, each with its own legal significance.

A. Types of Resolutions

Joint Resolutions
- Often treated as having the force of law when approved by both Houses and approved (or allowed to lapse into law) by the President, depending on subject matter.
- Sometimes used for matters such as franchise extensions or specific authorizations.
Concurrent Resolutions
- Passed by both Houses, but not presented to the President.
- Typically deal with matters affecting both Houses but purely internal, such as joint sessions, joint rules, or expressions of sentiment.
Simple Resolutions
- Passed by one House only.
- Deal with matters internal to that House, e.g., rules, expressions of opinion, investigations.

B. Joint Resolutions

Where a joint resolution is intended to have the force of law and is treated similar to a bill requiring presidential action:

The principles stated above on bills generally apply:
- It must be approved by both Houses within the same Congress;
- Once transmitted to the President, it may be approved, vetoed, or lapse into law;
- If vetoed, the override must occur before that Congress ends.

If a joint resolution has not completed the requisite steps before termination of Congress, it dies with that Congress and must be reintroduced in the next.

C. Concurrent and Simple Resolutions

Because these resolutions usually concern internal matters, joint sessions, or expressions of policy, their fate is simpler:

Concurrent resolutions pending at the end of Congress are terminated with that Congress. The next Congress is free to adopt new resolutions as it sees fit.
Simple resolutions of one House likewise die with the House’s term. They are expressions of that House as then constituted and cannot bind its future composition.

Completed concurrent or simple resolutions (e.g., a concurrent resolution calling for a joint session that has already taken place) are essentially historical facts, and the end of Congress does not retroactively affect them. But any pending internal resolution loses relevance and legal effect when the Congress that conceived it terminates.

VII. Special Contexts Affected by Termination

A. Legislative Inquiries “in Aid of Legislation”

Both Houses exercise the power to conduct legislative inquiries under Article VI, Section 21 (“in aid of legislation”), usually via resolutions:

Resolutions creating investigating committees;
Resolutions authorizing subpoenas, contempt powers, and hearings.

When Congress terminates:

Ongoing inquiries generally expire with the Congress that authorized them.
Subpoenas and show-cause orders rooted in that inquiry are, in principle, no longer enforceable as expressions of the authority of the now-terminated Congress.
If a new Congress wishes to continue or revive such an inquiry, it must adopt a new resolution or refile the measure that warrants the investigation.

Jurisprudence has touched on issues of whether the Senate is a “continuing body”, especially regarding its rules and contempt powers. While the Senate has sometimes argued continuity, the safer analytical approach is:

For ordinary legislation and inquiries tied to specific pending bills, termination of Congress generally terminates the relevant inquiry or resolution.
The records of the previous inquiry may still be consulted, but new formal authority is needed for further compulsory processes in the new Congress.

B. Impeachment Proceedings

Impeachment involves a verified complaint filed with the House, which then conducts proceedings to determine whether to transmit Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, which in turn sits as an impeachment court.

The 1987 Constitution also provides a “one impeachment per year” rule against the same official.

Practical consequences of termination:

An impeachment complaint pending in the House of Representatives that has not yet resulted in the approval and transmission of Articles of Impeachment before the end of Congress generally does not carry over.
A new impeachment complaint in the new Congress would be treated as a new complaint, subject again to the constitutional one-year bar based on when a previous complaint was filed and its status.
If Articles of Impeachment have already been transmitted to the Senate and the Senate trial is underway, the situation is more complex; but as a rule, termination of Congress reshapes the composition of the House (prosecutors) and may affect the continuity of the proceedings, depending on how the Senate structures its rules and whether it asserts some form of continuity for that impeachment trial.

In practice, major impeachment trials tend to be fast-tracked and concluded within the same Congress, avoiding the problem of cross-Congress continuity.

C. Treaties and Senate Concurrence

Treaties and international agreements generally require Senate concurrence (by a two-thirds vote of all its Members) under Article VII, Section 21 of the Constitution.

If the Senate has not acted on a treaty before the end of Congress, the question is whether the Senate, as a “continuing body,” can act on it in the next Congress without a new transmittal.
In practice, the Senate’s internal rules and practice determine whether prior referrals and committee actions on treaties remain valid in the next Congress.
Unlike bills, treaties are not “filed” as Senate measures; rather, they are transmitted by the Executive, and the Senate gives or withholds concurrence. This makes them more amenable to being considered under the doctrine of Senate continuity than ordinary bills.

However, this is a specialized area and distinct from the fate of bills and resolutions in the usual legislative sense.

VIII. Internal Rules on Archiving and Revival

Both Houses of Congress maintain rules and practices regarding the disposition of unfinished business at the end of a Congress.

Common features include:

Archiving or terminating measures that remain pending at the end of the Congress;
Classifying them under “unfinished business of the [X]th Congress”;
Allowing, in some instances, revival by specific motion within the same Congress (e.g., bills archived mid-term for practical reasons), but not across different Congresses once the term has fully expired.

In many cases, particularly in the House, if a Member wants to revive a measure from a prior Congress, the usual and safest path is refiling the bill with a new number, rather than relying on any “revival” of the old docket.

IX. Practical Implications for Legislators and Stakeholders

Understanding that pending measures do not carry over to the next Congress leads to several strategic and practical lessons:

Timing Matters
- Authors must be keenly aware of the legislative calendar, especially as a Congress approaches its final regular session and adjournment sine die.
- Complex or controversial measures that require extensive hearings and bicameral reconciliation are, in practice, harder to pass if introduced late in the term.
Re-Filing Is Common
- Many important laws are the product of repeated re-filing across several Congresses.
- Stakeholders often track a proposal’s history across multiple Congresses to gauge its maturation and support.
Use of Shorter Measures or Joint Resolutions
- For urgent or single-issue matters (e.g., temporary authorizations), joint resolutions are sometimes used, but they are subject to the same constraints: they must be completed within the Congress that begins and moves them.
Executive Coordination
- The Executive and Legislative branches often plan key reform packages early in a Congress to avoid the risk of measures dying at the end of the term.
- Priority bills under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) are typically pushed during the first two sessions of a Congress.
Advocacy and Public Participation
- Civil society groups and advocates must recognize that progress in one Congress, if not consummated, will not automatically continue.
- They must be ready to rekindle support, lobby new Members, and adjust strategies when a new Congress convenes.

X. Conclusion

In the Philippines, the termination of a Congress has profound consequences for pending bills and resolutions:

Bills and most resolutions that have not completed the full constitutional process within that Congress generally die with it.
Only those that have reached the stage of enrollment and transmittal to the President escape this fate, and even then, the President’s decision and the timing of any veto override are bounded by the lifespan of the Congress that enacted them.
The requirement that both Houses approve identical texts within the same three-year term, and that any veto override be undertaken by that same Congress, reflects the constitutional principle that each Congress is a distinct legislature with its own mandate.

For legislators, policy advocates, and citizens, this underscores a simple but critical rule of thumb: “If it isn’t law by the time the Congress ends, it starts from zero again.” Understanding this rule—and planning legislative strategies around the rhythms of the three-year term—is essential to navigating the Philippine law-making process.