Amendments can be used to either help or hinder a bill in its path to law. Judge Robert Satter has divided up the purposes of amendments into a number of (unofficial) categories that reflect real-world legislative activity:

Amendments are introduced for a variety of purposes and may be characterized along the following lines:

• The dilatory type, which substitutes for the substance of the bill a provision that a study committee on the subject matter be appointed, or that the effective date of the bill be delayed for a year or more.

• The emasculating type, which disembowels the core of the bill, leaving only its shell.

• The pie-in-the sky type, which extravagantly improves the bill and increases costs, so the bill is no longer feasible.

• The resurrection type, which appends to the bill the provisions of another bill previously disapproved in committee.

• The compromising type, which resolves differences to attract a majority vote on the bill.

• The destructive type, which changes key provisions in the bill so as to distort the shape and symmetry of the bill.

• The beneficial type, which clarifies language and improves the efficacy of the bill.

Satter, Robert. Under the Gold Dome: An Insider's Look at the Connecticut Legislature. New Haven: Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, 2004. 104.