Toolkit #4: Legislative Process

How A Bill Becomes A Law

In A Nutshell… Introduced by a “Sponsor” Amended and passed in Committee Passed in each chamber (e.g., House and Senate) Signed into law by the Executive Branch (President or Governor)

State vs. Federal The legislative process is basically the same whether it is a state government or the Federal Government However, there are important differences. For more information, see Toolkit #6 (State vs. Federal Government)

What Is A Legislative Session? There is a discrete period of time when bills can be introduced and passed In Congress (Federal government), this is a two year period following elections. We are currently in the “114th Congress” (Jan 2015 to Jan 2017) State government session vary state to state (visit www.rareaction.org to see your state Everything starts over at the beginning of a new session

Introducing A Bill All legislation (State or Federal) must be “Sponsored” or “Authored” by a legislator In the federal government, a bill can be introduced any time when the legislature is in session State governments often have “filing deadlines” when all new bills must be submitted All bills are assigned a number/letter combination corresponding to when and where they were introduced (e.g., HR 50, SB 100, AB 2612) Except in rare instances, all new bills are immediately sent to a committee of jurisdiction The U.S. Congress and all states have websites where you can check the status of new legislation: www.congress.gov http://openstates.org

The Committee Process Committees are where the rubber meets the road in the legislative process Committees have jurisdiction over certain types of bills (e.g., health care, new taxes, road improvements) Once a bill is referred to committee, this is when hearings are held and the bill is debated or amended To move forward, a bill must be voted out of committee

Why Bills Fail Not enough public support or support from legislators Opposition advocacy (including lobbying) Not enough time: there are hundreds of bills before a committee at any given time. They can only get to so many of them before the session ends

The Legislative Floor After a bill passes out of committee, it goes to ”the floor” for a vote among all the legislators in that chamber (e.g., the house or senate) There is no requirement that a bill must be voted on Legislative leadership has immense power over what bills get voted on In Congress, more bills tend to get votes in the House than in the Senate. The Senate has weird rules that prevent quick action

Rinse and Repeat In most cases, this entire process has to be repeated in the second legislative chamber Only when both chambers (e.g., House and Senate) have passed the same version of a bill can it go to the Executive for signature There are exceptions to this process

Enacting a Law The Executive branch must sign bills for them to become law (i.e., President or Governor) If the Executive vetoes a bill, the legislature can still make it a law with a 2/3 majority vote Bills typically take effect in January of the following year, but there are lots of exceptions to this: Emergencies Laws that need more time (usually drastic changes)

Don’t worry! RareAction is here to help Complicating Factors There can be more than one committee of jurisdiction for a bill, which means more hearings and votes In state government, there is often a committee looking exclusively at how much a proposed law will cost Don’t worry! RareAction is here to help

Other Resources Toolkit #6 (State Government vs. Federal Government) Toolkit #3 (How to Meet With Your Legislator) RareAction Legislative Tracker State Policy Report Card

www.rareaction.org www.rarediseases.org Thank You www.rareaction.org www.rarediseases.org