Understanding The Enactment Process Of Laws

The process of a bill becoming a law is known as the enactment of a law. In the United States, the legislative branch of the federal government, Congress, is responsible for making laws. A bill is a proposal for a new law or a change to an existing law. The idea for a bill can come from a sitting member of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, be proposed during their election campaign, or be petitioned by people or citizen groups. Once a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee whose members will research, discuss, and make changes to the bill. The bill is then put before that chamber to be voted on. If the bill passes one body of Congress, it goes to the other body to go through a similar process of research, discussion, changes, and voting. Once both bodies vote to accept a bill, they must work out any differences between the two versions. Then both chambers vote on the same version of the bill. If it passes, they present it to the president. The president then considers the bill and can approve the bill and sign it into law, or refuse to approve a bill, which is called a veto. If the president chooses to veto a bill, in most cases, Congress can vote to override that veto and the bill becomes a law. However, if the president does not sign off on a bill and it remains unsigned when Congress is no longer in session, the bill will be vetoed by default, which is called a pocket veto, and it cannot be overridden by Congress.

The idea for a bill

Citizens who have ideas for laws can contact 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 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.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, a bill is introduced when it is placed in the hopper—a special box on the side of the clerk’s desk. Only Representatives can introduce bills in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Once a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee whose members will research, discuss, and make changes to the bill. The bill is then put before that chamber to be voted on.

Some ideas for bills include:

• Offering tax incentives for making homes more energy-efficient
• Allowing the option of physician-assisted suicide for recipients of the death penalty/life sentence in prison
• Making bicycle expenses tax-deductible, as long as the bike is used for commutes to work
• Ceasing any state funding for any institution that bears the name of a Conquistador or Native American
• Providing incentives for recycling and buying items with less packaging, such as making the cost of trash collection dependent on the weight of each resident's trash
• Raising the minimum wage
• Making physician-assisted suicide legal or illegal
• Making it illegal to teach "intelligent design" in public schools
• Raising taxes on gasoline
• Adding soda to the list of controlled substances
• Providing consequences to students for not passing Standards Based Assessments
• Eliminating advertising in public schools
• Setting a limit on the number of properties that may be bought by non-residents
• State-subsidized parental leave
• Changing the voting system to IRV (Instant Runoff Voting)
• Providing no-interest loans or subsidising New Mexico farmers installing drip-irrigation systems
• Imposing a 50% sales tax on any GMO product
• Banning the use of cell phones while operating a motor vehicle
• Farmer subsidies for organic farming
• Capping limits on the percentage of money New Mexico school districts spend on bureaucracy and administration
• Limiting class sizes in elementary schools

The bill is introduced

The process of a bill becoming a law, and thus being enacted, begins with its introduction. This can occur in either chamber of the US Congress – the Senate or the House of Representatives. Members of the House introduce bills by sending them to the desk of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, where they are numbered, titled, and referred to the appropriate committee. Senators, on the other hand, announce their intention to introduce a bill during a session, after which it is received by the Secretary of the Senate and processed by the Legislative Clerk. Bills are then referred to the appropriate Senate committee.

The bill is then published in the daily digest of the Congressional Record, along with a brief description, and is generally made available online via the Government Publishing Office within 24 hours. The bill is also placed on the appropriate calendar – the House and Senate each have their own – where it remains until it is called up for consideration by the chamber.

Committees play a crucial role in the legislative process. They are responsible for reviewing, amending, and making recommendations on bills. Committees can also hold hearings on bills, which allow members to hear testimony from experts and members of the public, and markup sessions, where they can debate and amend the bill. Once a committee has finished its work on a bill, it will submit a report to the full chamber, recommending that the bill pass, fail, or be amended.

The introduction of a bill is just the first step in the legislative process, and there is no guarantee that a bill will become law. A bill may never be considered by the full chamber, or it may be amended or rejected. However, the introduction of a bill is a crucial step in the legislative process, as it is the first step in turning an idea into a law.

The bill is assigned to a committee

Once a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee whose members will research, discuss, and make changes to the bill. The Speaker of the House or the presiding officer in the Senate refers the bill to the appropriate committee. The actual referral decision is often made by the House or Senate parliamentarian. Bills may be referred to more than one committee and split so that parts are sent to different committees. One of those committees will be designated the primary committee of jurisdiction and will likely take the lead on any action that may occur.

In the House, bills are referred by the Speaker, on the advice of the nonpartisan parliamentarian, to all committees that have jurisdiction over the provisions in the bill, as determined by the chamber's standing rules and past referral decisions. Most bills fall under the jurisdiction of one committee. If multiple committees are involved and receive the bill, each committee may only work on the portion of the bill under its jurisdiction.

In the Senate, bills are typically referred to the committee with jurisdiction over the issue that predominates in the bill. In a limited number of cases, a bill might not be referred to a committee but instead be placed directly on the Senate Calendar of Business through a series of procedural steps on the floor.

Committees may refer their pending bills to subcommittees for study and reports. Most committees have standing subcommittees, and ad hoc subcommittees are also appointed to study and report on particular pieces of legislation or to make a study of a certain subject.

A committee will hold a "mark-up" session during which it will make revisions and additions. If substantial amendments are made, the committee can order the introduction of a "clean bill" which will include the proposed amendments. This new bill will have a new number and will be sent to the floor while the old bill is discarded. The chamber must approve, change or reject all committee amendments before conducting a final passage vote.

After the bill is reported, the committee staff prepares a written report explaining why they favor the bill and why they wish to see their amendments, if any, adopted. Committee members who oppose a bill sometimes write a dissenting opinion in the report. The report is sent back to the whole chamber and is placed on the calendar.

The bill is voted on by both houses of Congress

The legislative process in the United States is a complex one, with many steps involved in the enactment of a law. Once a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee whose members will research, discuss, and make changes to the bill. The bill is then put before the chamber to be voted on. If the bill passes one body of Congress, it goes to the other body to go through a similar process of research, discussion, changes, and voting.

The process of voting on a bill in the House of Representatives is quite structured. Each member who wishes to speak only has a few minutes, and the number and kind of amendments are usually limited. In the Senate, however, debate on most bills is unlimited. Senators may speak to issues other than the bill under consideration during their speeches, and any amendment can be introduced. Senators can use this to filibuster bills under consideration, a procedure by which a Senator delays a vote on a bill and, by extension, its passage by refusing to stand down. A supermajority of 60 Senators can break a filibuster by invoking cloture, or the cession of debate on the bill, and forcing a vote. Once debate is over, the votes of a simple majority pass the bill.

A bill must pass both houses of Congress before it goes to the President for consideration. Though the Constitution requires that the two bills have the exact same wording, this rarely happens in practice. To bring the bills into alignment, a Conference Committee is convened, consisting of members from both chambers. The members of the committee produce a conference report, intended as the final version of the bill. Each chamber then votes again to approve the conference report. Depending on where the bill originated, the final text is then enrolled by either the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate and presented to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate for their signatures. The bill is then sent to the President.

The bill is sent to the President

Once a bill has been approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is sent to the President for review. The President can take one of three actions:

• Sign and pass the bill, at which point it becomes law.
• Refuse to sign, or veto, the bill. The bill is then sent back to the House of Representatives, along with the President's reasons for the veto. If the House of Representatives and the Senate still believe the bill should become law, they can hold another vote on the bill. If two-thirds of the Representatives and Senators support the bill, the President's veto is overridden and the bill becomes law.
• Do nothing (pocket veto). If Congress is in session, the bill automatically becomes law after 10 days. If Congress is not in session, the bill does not become law.

Frequently asked questions