What role does the executive branch play in the lawmaking process? The Bill to Law Process Essential Questions: How does the legislature complete its most important job? What role does the executive branch play in the lawmaking process?

How a Bill Becomes a Law Types of Bills: - Private Bills: deal with specific people or places - Public Bills: deal with entire nation Bill to Law Process 1. Idea: members of Congress, lobbyists, and the President or Governor come up with ideas for bills. Anyone can come up with the idea for a bill. 2. Bill is written up and proposed on the floor of one house by a senator or representative

Bill to Law continued… 3. Each bill goes to the appropriate committee where experts are consulted and amendments are discussed. Five things can happen to a bill in committee: 1) bill is passed with no changes. 2) bill is passed with changes. 3) bill is replaced with an alternative. 4) “pigeonholing”: Chair of the committee ignores the bill. 5) bill is killed.

Bill to Law 4. Floor Debate: Both houses allow all members to debate the bill and propose changes. - In the Senate only: Senators can add amendments that are totally unconnected to the bill. These are called “riders”. There are also no time limits in the Senate, so a Senator can speak continuously for hours to prevent a vote on a bill. This is called a filibuster. Filibusters can only be ended by a “Cloture” vote of 3/5 of the Senate. 5. Voting on a bill: a simple majority of 51% is needed to pass a bill

Bill to Law 6. Conference Committee: members of both houses meet to compromise on a single version of a bill. The bill must again be passed by both houses 7. Presidential Action: The President can do three things. 1) sign the bill into law. 2) veto the bill (a 2/3 vote of Congress is needed to overturn a Presidential veto). 3) Pocket-veto: If Congress is not in session when the President receives the bill, he can ignore it for 10 days. After 10 days, the bill can no longer be passed.