Creating Laws: Citizen Power

Citizens can play a role in the creation of laws by contacting their Representatives to discuss their ideas for new laws. If the Representatives agree, they will research the ideas and write them into bills. However, it is important to note that only Senators and Representatives can introduce these bills in their respective Houses. Once a bill is introduced, it is referred to the standing committees that have jurisdiction over the subject matter. The bill then goes through a process of approval by the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the President before it can become a law.

How citizens can suggest laws

Citizens can suggest laws by contacting their Representatives to discuss their ideas. If the Representatives agree, they will research the ideas and write them into bills. When a Representative has written a bill, the bill needs a sponsor.

Citizens can also petition their government to suggest laws. The right of petition is guaranteed to citizens of the United States by the Constitution, and many individual petitions, as well as memorials from state legislatures, are sent to Congress. These are usually referred to the appropriate committees of the House in which they were submitted.

How citizens can contact their representatives

Citizens can create laws by contacting their representatives to discuss their ideas. Ideas for legislative proposals can come from individual citizens, but they can only be introduced in their respective Houses by Senators and Representatives.

Citizens can contact their representatives by:

• Using the Find Your Representative service on house.gov to identify and contact their elected representative.
• Visiting the House of Representatives' Find Your Representative page, typing in their zip code, and clicking the Find Your Rep by Zip button. If more than one congressional district is contained in your zip code, you can look at the map on the results page to see where the borders of each congressional district are located.
• Selecting a congressional district to see the name of the representative and a link to their official website.
• Searching for their member page on Congress.gov by selecting Members from the pull-down menu and typing the representative's name into the search box.
• Obtaining detailed contact information for members of Congress by using the Congressional Directory, which is prepared by the Joint Committee on Printing and published by the Government Publishing Office.
• Writing or calling their elected representative, or visiting the member's website for alternate contact information.
• Contacting the Clerk of the House to obtain addresses and phone numbers of all House members and Committees, or calling the U.S. House switchboard operator at (202) 224-3121.

How citizens can petition Congress

Citizens can create laws by contacting their Representatives to discuss their ideas. If the Representatives agree, they research the ideas and write them into bills. When a Representative has written a bill, the bill needs a sponsor.

Citizens can petition Congress by exercising their right to petition the government, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. One way to do this is through the We the People platform, which allows citizens to create and share petitions online, and collect signatures. If a petition gathers 100,000 signatures in 30 days, it will be reviewed and sent to the appropriate policy experts, who will issue an official response.

Petitioning allows citizens to express their ideas, hopes, and concerns to their government and elected representatives. It is an opportunity to connect with a community of like-minded people who are invested in making a change and can lead to real change. Citizens can also send executive communications to Congress, which are documents signed by the President or by an agency or department head, and filed or submitted as a report to the Senate. These communications are usually referred to the appropriate committees of the House in which they were submitted.

How citizens can amend or repeal existing laws

Citizens can amend or repeal existing laws by contacting their Representatives to discuss their ideas. If the Representatives agree, they research the ideas and write them into bills. When a Representative has written a bill, the bill needs a sponsor. The bill is then referred to the standing committees which have jurisdiction over the subject matter. Members frequently introduce bills that are similar in purpose, in which case the committee considering them may add to one of the bills the best features of the others for reporting to the parent body, or draft an entirely new bill (known as an original bill) and report it in lieu of the others.

Citizens can also exercise their right of petition, which is guaranteed by the Constitution. Petitions and memorials from State legislatures are sent to Congress and laid before the two Houses by their respective Presiding Officers or submitted by individual Members of the House and Senate in their respective bodies. They are usually referred to the appropriate committees of the House in which they were submitted.

How citizens can influence the legislative process

Citizens can influence the legislative process in a number of ways. Firstly, they can contact their Representatives to discuss their ideas for laws. If the Representatives agree with the idea, they will research it and write it into a bill. This bill then needs a sponsor.

Citizens can also petition their government. In the US, the right of petition is guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution, and many individual petitions are sent to Congress. These are usually referred to the appropriate committees of the House in which they were submitted.

Citizens can also influence the legislative process by forming or joining citizen groups. These groups can advocate for specific legislative proposals, which can then be introduced in the respective Houses by Senators and Representatives.

Frequently asked questions