Legislative Process: How a bill becomes a law

Who can propose a law? Anyone can suggest an idea for a law. However, only a Member of Congress can take a proposed law to the House of Representatives or the Senate.

Introduction Bill must be introduced by a member of Congress. Bill receives number H.R. for House of Representatives S. for Senate Where do money bills begin?

The Standing Committee This is a permanent committee in the House & Senate that studies bills. Both the house and Senate have Standing committees. They exist because they deal with topics that always come up i.e. Agriculture, Education, Defense House Senate Introduce Bills Standing Committee

The Subcommittee After going to the Standing Committee Bills are sent to a subcommittee They are created for a purpose…Temp A more detailed analysis of a bill. Ex.: If it’s a bill about education, what specifically does it want to do? Introduce Bill Standing Committee Subcommittee

Scheduling AKA Time Limits for Debate Introduce Bill Standing Committee House Rules Committee House Floor Subcommittee Senate: scheduling by the Majority Leader’s office House Rules Committee – This Committee determines the order in which bills come up for a vote on the House floor. The Senate does not have a Rules Committee, This means that There are no individual time limits in the Senate for debating bills. Time limits for the House are per person to speak Time limits for the Senate are overall time to pass the bill dies passes

Filibuster: When a Senator is talking a bill to death Strom Thurmond- 24hrs and 18 min. straight filibuster] against the Civil Rights Act of 1967 (longest recorded filibuster by one Senator in U.S. History) For example: They read the dictionary, homemade recipe's (anything, because there is no time limit) *There is a time limit for the House of Representatives To prevent a handful of Senators from using a filibuster to halt the passage of a popular bill, the Senate adopted Cloture, 3/5 of Senate has to be in favor to end debate.

Conference Committee Conference committees are created to resolve disputes between the House and Senate Versions of the bill Remember that each comes up with their own version of the bill then they create one copy for the president look at. If they cannot agree, it starts over at the top. Conference committees have members of both houses to accomplish this.

To the White House Review / soundings Options Sign Law without signature. Bill sit on his desk for 10 days without signing it while Congress is in session, then becomes a law Veto (subject to override) Pocket veto. If, after 10 days, he has not signed it and Congress is no longer in session, the bill does not become a law Line-Item Veto – The power of the President to remove specific spending items from bills passed by Congress. (In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto to be unconstitutional).

Terms to Know Veto Pocket Veto Bill Law Line Item Veto Law without a Signature Filibuster Cloture Committees Scheduling