How Bills Become Laws

There are 3 Branches of Government

Legislative Branch

The Legislative Branch is where bills become laws. Also refered to as the Congress, the Legisltative Branchs is further sub divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Bill Refferal to Committee

The first step in the legislative process occurs when a bill is sent to committee and possibly even a sub committee within that comittee. Committees are composed of members of both political parties but leadership in those committees is awarded to the party currently in the majority.

What happens in committee?

Once a bill is reffered to commitee or subcommittee, it’s place on the legislative calendar, and if acted upon the committee/subcommitteee will begin to study the bill. This usually includes hearings from relevant experts in the field.

Next Steps in Committee

After studying a bill the committee/subcommittee will then ammend, or “mark-up” the bill. A vote will then take place, which if successful will mean the publicaiton of a written report.

Scheduling Floor Action, Debate & Voting

If reported back to the chamber, the bill will be placed on the legislative calendar in chronological order by current speaker who represents the party currently in the majority. This provides the party in power a great deal. If taken up, the bill will be debated and voted on according to the rules of the house in quesiton. A successful vote in one house will lead the bill to be refered to the other. However as you can see in the figure below bills rarely recieve a significant vote in either house.

Final Actions

Should a bill pass through both houses of congress, it is then sent to the president for his approval or veto. A Presidential veto may overided by the legilatature but it would require a two thirds vote to do so.