From Concept to Law According to The White House website, prior to the Constitution, the government of the United States was known to be practically paralyzed and ineffectual, due to being exercised by the Articles of Confederation, which established a “firm league of friendship” between the states, and vested most power in a Congress of the Confederation. This power was, however, extremely limited — the central government conducted diplomacy and made war, set weights and measures, was the final arbiter of disputes between the states, but it could not raise any funds itself, it was entirely dependent on the states themselves for the money necessary to operate (whitehouse.gov, n.d.). Decision making was not easy to accomplish. States sent …show more content…
The law making process can be very long and frustrating. In the United States House of Representatives website, the process is described as follows: Laws begin as ideas. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended. If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill (Representatives, n.d.). Passing the Affordable Care Act represented such process, which started in 2008, even before President Obama won the election, when he said, “On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes — government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. … I believe both of these
It seems the Founders wanted to make the passage of legislation difficult. The Constitution settles how bills become law in the United States. The procedure is operose and can take significant time to complete. The course materials of week three offer more than enough information on how the procedure works. This essay will, mainly, use the course materials to describe the process of how a bill becomes a law. The process of transforming a bill into a law requires the participation of both the Legislative branch and Executive branch of government.
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.
Let’s start by going through the basics of the procedure. The state government is made up of three branches. (The “Executive”, headed by the governor, the “Judicial”, consisting of Texas supreme the court along with state courts, and the “Legislative”, which includes 150 members in the House of Representatives and 31 in the state senate) Of these three, the Legislative branch is responsible for creating laws such as “S.B. 11”. The speaker of the House and Lieutenant Governor of the Senate both discuss rules that must be followed during the discussion of the bill. A Representative or Senator gets the idea for a new law by listening to the people that they represent. Once heard, a “Bill” is written. Many of the new bills are presented in the chamber, in which they arose from, in the “First Reading”. In the House, they are considered by each committee in three different meeting settings. After consideration, a committee may take no action or issue a report on it. In the Senate, testimony may be heard.
Explain the process by which a bill becomes a law: The transformation of a drafted bill into law the involves several steps. They are: first the introduction of the bill. Any member of the House writes a bill and introduces it in Parliament. Then the ruling president, cabinet participants, of the leader of the public program can introduce a bill, but in most cases, the bill must be initiated by a member of the Senate. Next, is a committee review and actions. Once the bill listed in the parliament, it is left in the hands of a commission. The selected board must specialize the area covered by the bill for expertise. In the council, the bill is evaluated and determines the chance that the bill has is going to pass. In case, the committee fails
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
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.
The United States federal government should limit the influx of refugees into the United States. Currently, three different entities oversee the United States Refugee Admissions Program. These entities are the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which falls under the Department of State, The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is headed up by the Department of Health and Human Services, and select offices within the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the Department of Homeland Security has the responsibility of conducting security interviews, and they determine whether an individual is eligible to become a refugee in the Unites States. Once accepted, potential refugees are then broken down into three categories. Priority one refugees are those fleeing persecution, or persons who have no other durable solution. Refugees placed in priority two are persons from Iraq, Iran, the former Soviet Union, Burma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bhutan and Cuba. Priority three refugees are the relatives of refugees who have already been admitted into the United States (American Immigration Council). This immigration system was meant, originally, to keep the proportions the same for every nationality and ethnic group. For instance, the United States government utilized a visa lottery to facilitate this effectively.
Healthcare has been at the forefront of United States public policy for decades. Ever since President Roosevelt proposed healthcare reform during his 1912 run for president, reform has been a policy position often espoused in American politics, culminating with Social Security in the 1930s, Medicare in the 1960s, and finally the Affordable Care Act in 2010 (Palmer 1). While the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to provide care for every American, the United States has never fully adopted a single payer system; a healthcare system that provides universal care to every American. Furthermore, current systems within the United States that maintain single-payer attributes are subject to scrutiny from politicians and activists alike. While
The debate on what form of government the United States should assume was a highly controversial and debated topic. After the American Revolutionary War, the United States of America’s first constitution was ratified by all thirteen states in 1781. The constitution that unified the thirteen colonies by law was the Articles of Confederation; it established a weak central government that was adherent to the states. Therefore, the first form of government the United States officially had was a confederacy; which is where power is given to the central government through states. However, the new central government the Articles of Confederation created several shortcomings; for example, the national government did not have the ability to raise
The United States federal government has one of the toughest jobs in the country. They are employed to rectify issues that seem to have no unblemished, concise answer. They have no way of making every one of the “320, 477, 300” American citizens satisfied, but that is exactly what their occupation entails (United States). The federal government officials are elected by those very citizens to accurately represent the multitude of voices in Congress and act accordingly. Is that even possible?
Sixth, the next part of the lawmaking process is the floor debates. After the bill reaches the full chamber in the Senate and reaches the rules committee in the house decisions are made. Either two things will happen here, the bill will be scheduled for floor debates or it will be completely dropped. Usually bills that are able to make it this far in the process are passed into law. Passing these bills is not as easy as it sounds. Some bills cost members a lot just to get passed. Especially bills that have to do with spending. When the
The basic steps for passing a legislative bill, besides the lobbying and media politics for legislative process, can be broken down with the following:
In this paper I will outline the problems of the pedagogical approach the United States federal government took in light of the War on Drugs on the wide public education on drug use. I will examine two different articles from Think Progress and The Guardian that argue against the 1986 initiative by Nancy Reagan that became one of the most subtle but destructive aspects about the War on Drugs. She started an country wide program aimed at educating the youth. More specifically on being able to prevent drug use in teenagers. However, there were unintended consequences that I believe negatively affected the minds bodies and futures of those same teenagers they were trying to help out. Also, the seemingly noble intent to
Sixth, the next part of the lawmaking process is the floor debates. After the bill reaches the full chamber in the Senate and reaches the rules committee in the house decisions are made. Either two things will happen here, the bill will be scheduled for floor debates or it will be completely dropped. Usually bills that are able to make it this far in the process are passed into law. Passing these bills is not as easy as it sounds. Some bills cost members a lot just to get passed. Especially bills that have to do with spending. When the
To give you a short brief idea of how a bill is processed it must first have reason to be created. Then after long process and rewriting the bill finds itself in front of both houses where it must have both houses give a majority vote. Last but not least for a bill to become a law the president must sign the