How a Bill Becomes Law Essay

The process in which a bill becomes a law can be a lengthy one, it must go through many steps in order to become the law of the land. It is believed that this process should be a matter that every American citizen should be informed of in order to fully understand and appreciate the inner workings of congress with regard to The House of Representatives and the Senate. The steps in which a bill becomes a law is an example of the democratic way of life here in The United States. “The fact that a proposal cannot become a law without consideration and approval by both houses of congress is an outstanding virtue of our bicameral legislative system.” (Sullivan 1-2)

However, when it comes down to passing legislation the two chambers have mostly equal powers, as neither chamber can overturn the decision made by the other, therefore the senate cannot dominate the House. Along with the ruling that both chambers must approve constitutional amendments, the House does however have exclusive powers over money bills, but this is overshadowed by the Senates ability to ratify or even reject a

First, the proposed bill goes through the House of Representatives. Laws begin as ideas. These ideas may come from a Representative, or from a citizen. Citizens who have ideas for laws can contact their Representatives to discuss their ideas. If the Representatives agree, they research the ideas and write them into bills. When a Representative has written a bill, the bill needs a sponsor. The

In this process a bill is drafted, then it is introduced in the house. The Speaker of the House sends the bill to a committee, the committee decides to make changes to the bill or kill it. If the bill gets sent on, it gets sent to the Senate. In the senate it is sent to another committee and if majority vote for it, the bill will go to the whole Senate. The bill gets debated and amendments add, if needed, and then sent back to the House. Any changes made and House doesn’t agree it goes to a committee to find compromises. After the compromise it goes to the President. If the President vetoes the bill, ⅔ majority of the House can override the veto.

All laws start as bills. Any one can draft a bill, a congressman, the President, even Mr. Hughes if wanted something accomplished. Anyone can draft a bill, but only a congressman can put the bill into the bill box. From the bill box it is given to the speaker of the house, who decides which committee receives the bill for the lengthy editing process. The real power of the Speaker of the House is deciding which committee gets the bill, whether he wants the bill to pass or be thrown out. Inside the committees there are subcommittees that where a committee is a large idea, like the Senate armed forces Committee, the sub committees such as the seapower committee. after a long editing process the bill is either passed or trashed. if passed and in the house the next committee the bill goes to is the rules committee, where the date and how long the bill is argued for will be decided. If in the senate, the bill will go to the majority and minority leaders, and they decide when the bill will be brought for the entire senate. again it is argued in the senate or the house and it will either be trashed or passed here too. Finally the bill should be a law right, nope, the bill has to be passed in the other house of congress. finally once it has been passed in both compartments, if the wording is not the same a conference committee meets, with representatives from both the house and senate deciding the final wording of the bill, only

After watching the Schoolhouse Rock “I’m just a bill” presentation, it is effortless to identify how a bill legitimately merges into a physical law. To briefly describe its transformation, firstly the bill is simultaneously introduced to by a “House member on the House floor”, and by a “senator on the Senate floor” (Geer, et al. 410). Then in both locations the bill is referred to committees and later subcommittees. Once in hands of the committees, the bill is reviewed and becomes highly subjected to markups, the process by which congressional committees amend or rewrite proposed legislation, or hearings ,in which the newly marked or original up legislation is recontextualized, analyzed,debated, and voted on within agreement. After the House of Representatives and the Senate produce the bill that’s germane to their political views, they unite together within a conference to reconcile their bills and “produce one bill, intended

Firstly the members of congress, executive branch, or members of outside community draw up a bill. After that the members of the house only will have to introduce the bill on the floor of house of representative. Then the bill is sent to the committee. Only bills that are necessary and reasonably appropriate make it to the next step, which is the rules of a committee for debate. Then it goes back to the floor of the house for a debate and members of the house then will vote for the bill. If the bill is in favor by most of the members of the house, hence the bill is sent to the senate. The senator introduces the bill on the floor. If the majority of the committees agree then the bill goes to the entire senate to consider the bill. As it follows the same process of the house, there is a debate and if majority votes for the bill then the bill is returned back to the house of representative.

According to The House of Representatives (2015) all laws begin as ideas. Once an idea becomes a bill,

There are seven basic steps: Introduction, referral or assignment to house or senate committees, considered in house or senate committees, placement of bill on a legislative calendar, considered on the house or senate floor, signed or vetoed by governor, and lastly the bill does or does not become a law.

After the bill is introduced in either house, it is then assigned to an appropriate sub-committee in that chamber. If the subcommittee does not discuss the bill or don’t like it, the bill is never discussed again by either the committee or the full Congress. However, if the full committee likes the bill and it is approved, then it is placed on agenda for a complete discussion by the full chamber. This can seemingly be unusual because, according to Marc A. Triebwasser, “90 percent of the legislation introduced into either the House or Senate never makes it beyond the committee process.” Committees have the ability to block the passage of the legislation process even if the bill is popular enough to pass, so that is also another reason why it is difficult to get bills past the committee process, such as the background check bill. Although 80 percent of Americans and a clear majority in the Senate (54 out of 100) voting

All of the laws in the United States begin as a bill, which must be approved by the Senate, House of Representatives, and the President. The bill stars as an idea from a representative or a citizen who has an idea and tells their representative about the idea. The representative then decides if the idea is

The larger committee then takes all the recommendations from all the subcommittees and analyzes the results. They will compare and contrast all the different opinions and make necessary adjustments of their own. Once the larger committee has made all their adjustments, they may decide to completely overhaul the bill, or make changes and submit the changes back to the original chamber of Congress. Should they decide to completely overhaul the bill; the bill will be called a "Committee Bill." Most bills (94%) die here. At this vital point in the process, the chances of passing the bill are extremely slight. If the bill gets stuck in the committee, then the members of the floor can sign a "discharge petition," if it is in the house, which will bring the Bill to the floor. If it is in the Senate, it is called a discharge motion." These discharges have been tried over 800 times, but only 24 of them have been successful. In order for the discharge to become effective, there must be a majority of members who sign the bill, so for the house, there must be 216 votes for the discharge to draw the bill to the floor. For the Senate, there must be 51 votes in favor of the discharge in order to draw it to the floor.

For a bill to become a law it takes more than one step and more than one person deciding, it's not as easy as it seems. First, the legislation is introduced, and then you have the committee action, afterwards floor action, conference committee, the president, and then the bill becomes a law. Some bills will never make it through any of these processes but for those who really want their bill to pass, if they fight for it they just might get lucky. This paper will show you that it takes more than one person and is a long process. Through out this paper I will explain how a bill becomes a law so that you will have a better understanding of the process.

All things first start with an idea. This idea, then becomes an action and this action in turn has a result. This same concept can be applied to the legislative process. The first step begins with an idea, this idea is shared and if it gains the support of the masses this idea will then become sponsored by a representative. Once this idea has sponsorship it then proceeds to the congressional level where this idea gets the new title of a bill. Upon the name change from idea to bill also comes the benefit of becoming a proposed piece of legislation. For a bill this means that it will be sent to both the House of Representatives and Senate awaiting it’s future through debate. If the debate proves favorable for the bill, that is both the House of Representatives and the Senate approve then this bill is sent off to the desk of the president. From the moment the bill arrives at the desk of the president a countdown of ten days begins, this is

The power to make laws is chief among the enumerated powers of the legislature, and arguably the most important facet of the national government. So, the process and procedures for how bills become law would then be foolish to ignore. That process involving the bi-cameral legislature and the president was roughly spelled out in the first article of the constitution, and was perfected as issues arose throughout our history.