The House has made a practice the last few years of reserving the bills with the lowest numbers for leadership to use. H.R. 1-10 were reserved for the Speaker of the House (the top House Republican), and H.R. 11-20 for the Minority Leader (the top House Democrat).

When they’re introduced, we put ‘em up on the site just like all the others, but sometimes they kinda sneak in due to the way Congress publishes the bill data that we use. So here are a couple of Minority Leader bills that were introduced late last week, just in case you missed ‘em:

H.R. 15, The Middle Class Tax Cut Act
and
H.R. 16, The Sensible Estate Tax Relief Act of 2012

The Minority Leader “marquis” bills that have been introduced prior to these are:

H.R. 11, The Build America Bonds to Create Jobs Now Act of 2011
H.R. 12, The American Jobs Act of 2011 – costs $1,180 per U.S. family
H.R. 14, The MAP-21

Because Republicans control the House, Democrats have little chance to move the bills they like, but this is a good look at the bills they’ve introduced in response to the issues of the day.

Jobs and tax cuts are major issues, and these bills signal what Democrats would do if they ran the show.