The New Student's Reference Work/Omnibus Bill, The

Om′nibus Bill, The, a term applied to a bill reported on April 17th, 1850, by a committee of the Federal Senate of the United States headed by Henry Clay, because of its all-comprehensive nature.  The bill consisted of thirty-nine sections, and provided for the admission of California with her free constitution, territorial government in New Mexico and Utah, without express restriction upon slavery; a territorial boundary line between Texas and New Mexico in favor of the former; a more efficient fugitive slave-law; and denial to Congress of power to interfere with slave-trade between slave-states.  After long discussion the bill was broken up and each measure covered by a separate bill.  The term is now commonly applied to all single legislative acts in which are incorporated a number of loosely connected or wholly disconnected measures.  Such bills used to be passed by state legislatures with considerable frequency, but in later years provisions have found their way into constitutions requiring that single statutes shall deal with but one main subject which shall be clearly indicated in the title.