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How a Bill Becomes a Law
Proposal | Introduction | Committee | Subcommittee | Reported to House | Debate | House Vote | Senate Action | Presidential Action | Veto | Law |
How a Bill Becomes a LawFor a bill to go from an idea in the mind of a Member of Congress all the way to becoming law, it is a long, difficult process. Most bills do not become law. In fact, fewer than one in twenty bills that is introduced to the House or Senate becomes law.
For a step-by-step guide into the process of how a bill becomes a law, click on the links above, starting with "Proposal" and working your way down the list.
Only a Member of Congress can introduce legislation in Congress. This can happen whenever the House of Representatives is in session. The Member who introduces the legislation is called the bill's "sponsor."
The legislation will take one of four forms. It can be a bill (such as Congressman Engel's H.R. 670), a simple resolution (such as Congressman's H.Res. 209), a concurrent resolution (such as Congressman Engel's H.Con.Res. 126) or a joint resolution (such as H.J.Res. 4). The "H" stands for "House of Representatives." The Senate has all the same types of legislation, but they have abbreviations such as S., S.Res., S.J.Res., and S.Con.Res.
The large majority of legislation are bills. In the 109th Congress, Members introduced over 6400 bills, compared to 1100 simple resolutions, 500 concurrent resolutions, and 100 joint resolutions.
A Member of Congress introduces legislation that will benefit his or her constituents, the nation as a whole, or (usually) both.
In order to introduce the legislation, a Member will place a copy of the legislation into a box on the floor of the House of Representatives. This box is called the "hopper."
Once the legislation is introduced, it is sent to one of 21 House Committees, depending on what the legislation does. For example, Congressman Engel's H.R. 670, the DRIVE Act , has sections about energy and global warming, so it was sent to the Energy and Commerce Committee. You can click here to read what each committee does.
In order to make sure that the citizens of the country can pay attention to what the government is doing, the Library of Congress publishes a copy of the legislation online on their web site soon after the bill is introduced.
The first action a committee takes on a bill is to place it on the committee calendar.
Many times, a bill will be sent to a subcommittee for special work. For information on subcommittee action, click here.
Because many pieces of legislation are very complicated, committees will often hold hearings to investigate the bill. In a hearing, the committee will invite experts from across the country to tell the committee what the bill will do, and how it will benefit different segments of the country.
After the hearings, the committee will "mark up" the bill. This means that any member of the committee may suggest changes to the bill. These changes will be voted on, and if the votes succeed, the legislation continues with the member's amendment attached to it.
After the bill goes through the mark up process, the committee meets to vote on the final bill, whether the bill has been amended or not.
A subcommittee does much of the same work as the full committee, but usually with more specialized work. The first action a subcommittee takes on a bill is to place it on the committee calendar.
The subcommittee will hold hearings to figure out what the effect of the legislation will be, if the bill were to pass.
After the hearings, the subcommittee might mark up the legislation and vote on the proposed changes to the bill.
After markup, the subcommittee will vote on the final bill. If the vote succeeds, the bill will get sent back to the full committee.
If the committee supports the final bill in its vote, the bill is "reported" out of committee. That means the committee releases a report explaining each section of the bill, as well as the updated text of the marked up bill.
The Speaker of the House places the reported bill on the legislative calendar.
The bill goes to the full House of Representatives (called the "House Floor" for debate and consideration.
When the bill reaches the Floor of the House, any member can speak about the bill, either in support or in opposition to the bill.
Because the House has strict rules limiting the amount of time that Members can debate the bill, each Member can usually only speak about a bill for 1-5 minutes.
In addition to debate, Members are allowed to amend (change) the bill for a final time.
After the bill is debated and possibly amended, the House voted on the final bill.
Each Member has an electronic identification card that is used for voting. The Member slides this card into a box which automatically reads the card. The Member then presses a button to case a "yes," "no," or "present" vote.
If a majority (over half) of the House votes yes on the bill, the legislation passes and the bill is sent to the Senate, which goes through the same type of process as the House did (from introduction to committee to subcommittee to final vote).
When the House passes the bill, it is sent to the Senate, who has a choice of introducing the bill or ignoring it.
If a Senator introduces the bill, it will be sent to a committee and a subcommittee for a similar process as the House.
Once the bill goes through a subcommittee and full committee, and then passes by majority vote on the Senate Floor, the legislation is sent to the President for a signature.
When the legislation is passed by the House and Senate, it is sent to the President for approval.
The President then has four choices.
- First, he can sign the legislation, in which case it will become law.
- Second, he can ignore the legislation, which will cause it to become law after ten days.
- Third, he can veto the legislation, sending it back to Congress.
- Finally, if the Senate and House are not "in session" (meaning that the Members of both bodies are working in their home state rather than in Washington, DC), the President can ignore the legislation and it will not become law. This is called a "pocket veto."
If the President disagrees with the legislation, he can veto the bill and send it back to Congress.
When the bill is sent back to the House, another vote is taken on the House Floor. Congress has the power to "override" or overrule the President's veto, but it takes a 2/3 majority in both Houses (290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate). This is usually extremely difficult, and it is rare.
If the veto is overridden, the legislation becomes law without the President's signature.
If the veto is not overridden, the legislation does not become law.
If the President does sign the bill, or if the House and Senate override the President's veto,
the legislation becomes law.
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