A slow and tedious process Bill to Law A slow and tedious process

Some Facts Bills fall into two categories Private concern individual people or places Public bills apply to the entire nation and involve matters like taxation A bill can become law

Other types of Legislation Congress also considers resolutions which are formal statements expressing lawmakers’ opinions or decisions Do not always have the force of law H. Res 833 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c112:./temp/~c11232jCLm

Joint Resolutions Joint resolutions if passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President do be come law Involve constitutional issues and to designate money for specific purposes http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.J.RES.2: balance budget amendment

Step 1: Bill begins with an idea Ideas for bills can come from private citizens, the White House, or from special-interest groups Whatever the source-a member of Congress must introduce the bill

Step 2: Bill is Proposed When a Representative has written a bill, the bill needs a sponsor. The Representative talks with other Representatives about the bill in hopes of getting their support for it. Once a bill has a sponsor and the support of some of the Representatives, it is ready to be introduced.

Step 3: Bill is Introduced Representatives introduce bills by placing them in the bill hopper attached to the side of the clerk’s desk. A bill clerk assigns it a number that begins with H.R. A reading clerk then reads the bill to all the Representatives, and the Speaker of the House sends the bill to one of the House standing committees. Bills are retrieved from the hopper and the Speaker of the House refers to committees with the appropriate jurisdiction.

Step 4: The Bill Goes to Committee After a bill is introduced it is sent to a standing committee that is related to the bill’s subject The Committee can: PASS THE BILL/Reported MARK UP THE BILL REPLACE IT WITH A NEW BILL IGNORE THE BILL AND LET IT DIE (Pigeonholing) KILL THE BILL (by a majority vote)

Step 5: Bill is Debated If a bill manages to make it out of committee it is ready for consideration by the full House or Senate. During the debate members of the house speak for or against the legislation and can offer amendments House can only offer relevant amendments Senate allows riders completely unrelated to bill (pork barrel projects)

Rules of the Debate Both the House and the Senate have Rules Committees that establish the rules of the debate Example how long can the Reps or Senators speak Because the Senate is smaller – debate is less regulated this can lead to a filibuster-which is essentially talking a bill to death The only way to end a filibuster is through cloture (3/5th of the members vote to end debate

Step 6: Bill is voted on After the debate, the bill is brought up to vote Three types of votes in the House: Simple voice vote “yea” or “no” Standing vote where members stand to be counted Recorded vote where members cast their votes electronically Bill passes with a simple majority

Senate Voting Uses the voice vote, standing vote and a “roll-call vote” During a roll-call vote each Senator votes when their name is called Bill passes with a simple majority

Step 6:House bill is sent to Senate Back to Step 2: committee assignment and the whole process starts again in the other house of Congress

Step 7: Conference Committee The bill must be passed by both houses of Congress in the identical form If not a conference committee meets (comprised of both Senators and Representatives) to iron out the differences It is then sent back to both houses for a final vote/no amendments are added

Step 8: Bill goes to the White House Once the bill has made it out of both houses of Congress it is sent to the President President has 4 options Sign the bill and declare it a new law Veto it or refuse to sign the bill Do nothing for 10 days If Congress is in session the bill becomes law If Congress is not in session the bill dies (Pocket Veto)