How a Bill Becomes a Law
This page is all about the process of making laws. Now you might think that making a law is easy, just say 'hey this should be a rule that everyone should follow' take and vote and then boom, you're done. The reality is not quite so simple. There are many steps that have to be taken in order for a law to be made and passed.
First, a bill must be submitted to Congress. A bill is just a potential law. There are also two different types of bills- Private or Public. Private bills create a law for an individual. Public bills create laws that effect the country as a whole. In addition to bills, there are things called riders which are extra provisions that are added to a bill that have nothing to do with it just to make the bill more appealing to certain members of Congress.
To get the process really started, the bill must be introduced to either the House of Representatives, the Senate, or both at the same time. Now, not just anyone can walk into a session of Congress and introduce a bill, a bill may only be introduced by a member of congress. The bill is dropped into a box where it is then to be read out-loud at a congressional meeting and never to be seen again by the congressman who introduced it.
The next step is for the bill to be sent to a Committee. A committee is basically a review board to decide weather or not the bill is worth the time to send it on to the rest of the process. A Committee may do one of three things- kill the bill, send it to the floor for a vote, or revise the bill and then send it to the floor for a vote. To go a little more in depth, a bill may be killed in one of two ways- straight out dismissal of the bill or the bill can be subject to pigeonholing. Pigeonholing is when a Committee chooses to ignore a bill, effectively killing it.
If the bill was approved and passed, the it moves onto the Floor. This is where congressmen debate the bill. Changes to the bill may also be made in this step. In the Senate there is a special way that a bill may be killed. This is know as a Filibuster, in which a senator "talks a bill to death." Since the Senate has no time limit for debating a bill, a senator may choose to keep talking until there is no longer a quorum of senators (see next paragraph).
After all the debating, the bill is voted on. For a vote to take place there must be a quorum, or majority, must be present. The bill is then either passed or killed.
If the bill gets passed, it then goes to Conferencing. As previously mentioned, a bill must pass through the House and Senate in the exact same way in order for it to be made into a law. During the earlier steps of the process, a bill may be changed in several ways and that's where Conferencing comes in. It is here that a compromise is made between the two bills that are the same bill but aren't. Conferencing creates a single bill that is then sent back to both the House and the Senate for a re-vote.
Now that the bill is the same for both parts of Congress, if passed again by both then the bill goes to the President. If the bill is voted down in one or both then it is killed.
The revised bill that has been passed by both the Senate and House now has two (potentially three) fates- either the President signs the bill into law, vetos the bill, or if there is only 10 days left in a Congressional session then the President can choose to ignore the bill which essentially kills it, or else the bill automatically becomes law after 10 days of being sent to the President. FYI, the third fate of the bill is know as a Pocket Veto.
If in such a case that the President vetos the bill, then it goes back to Congress for one final vote. With a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote in both the House and Senate, the veto may be overridden and the bill made into law.
First, a bill must be submitted to Congress. A bill is just a potential law. There are also two different types of bills- Private or Public. Private bills create a law for an individual. Public bills create laws that effect the country as a whole. In addition to bills, there are things called riders which are extra provisions that are added to a bill that have nothing to do with it just to make the bill more appealing to certain members of Congress.
To get the process really started, the bill must be introduced to either the House of Representatives, the Senate, or both at the same time. Now, not just anyone can walk into a session of Congress and introduce a bill, a bill may only be introduced by a member of congress. The bill is dropped into a box where it is then to be read out-loud at a congressional meeting and never to be seen again by the congressman who introduced it.
The next step is for the bill to be sent to a Committee. A committee is basically a review board to decide weather or not the bill is worth the time to send it on to the rest of the process. A Committee may do one of three things- kill the bill, send it to the floor for a vote, or revise the bill and then send it to the floor for a vote. To go a little more in depth, a bill may be killed in one of two ways- straight out dismissal of the bill or the bill can be subject to pigeonholing. Pigeonholing is when a Committee chooses to ignore a bill, effectively killing it.
If the bill was approved and passed, the it moves onto the Floor. This is where congressmen debate the bill. Changes to the bill may also be made in this step. In the Senate there is a special way that a bill may be killed. This is know as a Filibuster, in which a senator "talks a bill to death." Since the Senate has no time limit for debating a bill, a senator may choose to keep talking until there is no longer a quorum of senators (see next paragraph).
After all the debating, the bill is voted on. For a vote to take place there must be a quorum, or majority, must be present. The bill is then either passed or killed.
If the bill gets passed, it then goes to Conferencing. As previously mentioned, a bill must pass through the House and Senate in the exact same way in order for it to be made into a law. During the earlier steps of the process, a bill may be changed in several ways and that's where Conferencing comes in. It is here that a compromise is made between the two bills that are the same bill but aren't. Conferencing creates a single bill that is then sent back to both the House and the Senate for a re-vote.
Now that the bill is the same for both parts of Congress, if passed again by both then the bill goes to the President. If the bill is voted down in one or both then it is killed.
The revised bill that has been passed by both the Senate and House now has two (potentially three) fates- either the President signs the bill into law, vetos the bill, or if there is only 10 days left in a Congressional session then the President can choose to ignore the bill which essentially kills it, or else the bill automatically becomes law after 10 days of being sent to the President. FYI, the third fate of the bill is know as a Pocket Veto.
If in such a case that the President vetos the bill, then it goes back to Congress for one final vote. With a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote in both the House and Senate, the veto may be overridden and the bill made into law.