How a Bill Becomes Law in the Federal Government

A list of actions they can take after evaluating a bill:

1. Send the bill to the full chamber with the recommendation to pass it or to the floor with a recommendation to reject it. 2. Mark up the bill with amendments and recommend that it's passed. 3. Replace the original bill with a new bill. 4. Ignore the bill. If a committee doesn't act on a bill, the bill dies. 5. The subcommittee may decide not to refer a bill back to the full committee, and the bill dies. 6. Kill the bill by majority vote. About 90% of bills die in committee or subcommittee. It is rare, but the full House can force a bill to the floor with a discharge petition

markup session

A meeting held by a congressional committee or subcommittee to approve, amend, or redraft a bill

jurisdiction

A place where an administrative body (court, council, state, nation) has established its authority

Clotures

A procedure for ending a debate to take a vote. The word cloture comes from the French word for closure. A cloture motion can stop all debates on a bill and proceed to a vote. Under the cloture rule, the Senate can limit the consideration time to 30 additional hours. It takes a three-fifths vote of the Senate to enact the cloture rule. This equates to sixty out of the 100 senators

bill

A proposed law. To become a law, all laws must be approved by the House, the Senate, and the President

Step 2: Introduce the Bill

After a bill has sponsorship and support, it has to be introduced. Only representatives can introduce a bill in the House and only senators can introduce a bill in the Senate. Once a bill is introduced in Congress, it is assigned a bill number and either H.R. if it came from the House or S if it came from the Senate

regulations

Also called rules or administrative laws because laws are being administered, not made. Regulations have the force of law because they're created with the authority of Congress. Sometimes regulations offer non-binding administrative guidance. This means they don't have the force of law. They're simply issued to help people obey the original law. This happens when a law does not give a particular entity any rulemaking authority

federal agency

An independent federal department or federally chartered corporation established by Congress and owned or underwritten by the U.S. government

Standing committees

Are permanent and have jurisdiction in areas such as the armed services, budget, transportation, or the environment

Committee Hearings

Are the formal meetings of a congressional committee. They hear testimonies from experts and people interested in the bill. The hearing is put on record, which the public has access to

3% to 6% of bills

Become law

Signing statements

Can be controversial if the president uses them to challenge certain parts of the law. No matter what is written in a signing statement, once a bill is signed—it becomes law

two-thirds vote

Can override a presidential veto

Amendments

Further amendments to the bill may be suggested, and then committee members vote to accept or reject these. If accepted, the changes are incorporated before recommending the bill to the full House. Sometimes less controversial pieces of legislation may be included in related, larger bills as amendments to help speed up the process

Committee Voting

If a committee votes not to report a bill, the bill dies. If the committee decides by majority vote in favor of the bill, it is reported to the floor. This process is called "ordering a bill reported." If there were extensive changes, the committee may decide to report a new bill, also called a clean bill, with all the amendments included

Conference Action

If the bill passes and no similar bill has been passed by another chamber, it is sent to that chamber for consideration

Presidential Action: Veto

If the president vetoes a bill, it goes back to Congress along with an explanation of why. If the House and the Senate still believe the bill should become a law, they can hold another vote. If two-thirds of the House and Senate support the bill, the president's veto is overridden, and the bill becomes law

Introduce the Bill: the House of Representatives

In the House of Representatives, there's a box called the hopper that sits on the side of the clerk's desk where bills are placed to be introduced. To introduce a bill, the bill clerk assigns it a number and then a reading clerk reads the bill to all the representatives. The Speaker of the House, the leader and presiding officer, sends the bill to a standing committee of the House

Introduce the Bill: The Senate

In the Senate, a senator may introduce a bill by giving it to one of the clerks at the presiding officer's desk. The senator may also rise and introduce the bill from the floor. The floor is where formal sessions of the Senate happen. The Senate majority leader then refers the bill to a committee that has jurisdiction based on the main issue in the bill.

Loving v. Virginia

In the case of Loving v. Virginia, Mildred and Richard Loving, an interracial couple, were arrested in Virginia in 1958 because the state law said interracial marriage was a felony. The couple pleaded guilty and had to agree to leave the state in order to avoid imprisonment

The Floor

Just a reminder: when a bill is sent to the floor, it will be considered in a formal session of the full House or the full Senate. This means that all members of each chamber will be present and voting, not just committee members

Step 1: Draft the Bill

Members of Congress work to draft a bill that will generate support in Congress and the public. After a bill is written, it needs a sponsor, who is the main Congress member supporting the bill. The other members who support the bill are called cosponsors. A bill with lots of cosponsors has a better chance of success

Loving v. Virginia: The Court of Appeals

Mildred Loving wanted to return home to Virginia and wrote to US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1963 to ask for help. From there, the case moved to the Virginia Court of Appeals. A court of appeals decides if the trial court applied the law correctly. The appeals court upheld the conviction, so the Lovings appealed to the US Supreme Court. Their appeal was based on the grounds that Virginia's law violated their rights to equal protection of the law under the Fourteenth Amendment

Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution

Outlines one exception about where within Congress a bill may originate. The Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue must come from the House of Representatives

lobbyist

Person who attempts to influence public policy. They advocate on behalf of individuals and organizations and push ideas to members of Congress. They work to influence political decisions, which could be new legislation or amendments to existing laws. This influence can become controversial as critics believe that laws shouldn't be shaped by special interest groups and their agendas or motives

hopper

Sits on the side of the clerk's desk where bills are placed to be introduced

Subcommittees

Subcommittee members evaluate the bill and gather more research and information before sending the bill back to the committee for approval. Subcommittees may hold their own hearings. They may make changes to the bill and then they vote to refer it back to the full committee

Pocket Veto

The Constitution gives the president ten days to sign or veto a bill. If he does nothing during that time, and Congress is still in session, the bill becomes law without his signature. However, if Congress has adjourned and the president does nothing for ten days, the bill dies. This is called a pocket veto. The power to issue a pocket veto comes from Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. The last president to use a pocket veto was President Clinton on December 19, 2000

Loving v. Virginia: The Supreme Court

The case went to the Supreme Court in 1967. The couple's attorneys argued that the Virginia law was unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that people hold basic civil rights that the state cannot interfere with. The Supreme Court unanimously agreed. It ruled that Virginia's interracial marriage law violated the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling overturned the Lovings' 1958 criminal conviction and struck down laws against interracial marriage in 15 other states

Proposing a bill

The president can propose a bill, but he cannot introduce it. Regardless of where a bill originated, a senator (from the Senate) or representative (from the House) must introduce it

Reporting the Bill

To report a bill is to formally submit it to its parent chamber (the House or Senate)

Presidential Action: Approval

When a bill goes to the president, this is considered the final action of the legislative process. The president may approve the bill by signing it and declaring it a new law. The president has ten days to approve or reject a bill

ordering a bill reported

When a subcommittee reads its recommendation to the rest of their house of Congress

other chamber

Where a bill is referred to after the House or Senate passes it. The other chamber may approve the bill as received, reject it, or ignore it. If there are differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill, Congress may form a conference committee, whose goal is to resolve or reconcile the differences. If the conference committee can't reach an agreement, the bill dies. If the committee reaches an agreement, they prepare a report with recommendations for the final bill. Both the House and the Senate must vote to approve the conference report. The compromise bill goes back to the full chamber for their vote

Riders

Which are amendments not related to the bill, to be added onto it. Riders are a way for lawmakers to get policies approved into law, when the policy would have no chance of becoming a law on its own. Riders can be controversial. Those in favor say riders provide the legislative branch with a check against the executive branch. Critics say riders force the president to choose between passing a bill with disagreeable parts and vetoing the entire bill, which could kill important legislation

filibuster

comes from a Dutch word that means "pirate" and refers to efforts to hold the Senate floor to stop members from voting on a bill. In the past, if too much time was used talking about a bill, the Senate would move on to other business. When Congress was just beginning, members from both chambers could filibuster. But the House grew so large that it began limiting debate time. The much smaller Senate allowed debate to go on for as long as senators wanted to speak