How a Bill Becomes a Law

First Steps  Bill is assigned to a committee  In subcommittee, a bill goes through the following phases:  Phase 1: Hearings (pros and cons are given to the bill, usually by the supporters or opponents)  Phase 2: Markup (changes are made to the document  Phase 3: Report (Vote on whether to send it back to standing committee)

House Rules Committee  Rules Committee determines what order bills are debated, as well as the rules for the debate  Chose to have a closed rule, which limits the floor debate and amendments to a bill  Chose to have an open rule, which allows floor debate and introduction of amendments  Speaker of the House has a lot of power with the Rules Committee and can help set schedule and rules

House and Senate: Floor Debate  Using the Power of Recognition (no one can speak unless first recognized by either the Speaker or the majority leader), bills go through three main parts:  general debate on the bill  debate and voting on amendments to the bill  voting on the final passage of the bill

House Floor Debate:  Short time to debate - normally only one hour for both pros and cons; give some floor time to colleagues who want to speak on the bill

Senate Floor Debate  Luxury of more time, so Senators can speak for endless time if no limit established  leads to filibusters (prolonged debate and other delaying tactics aimed at blocking a bill favored by the majority of lawmakers)  Senate adopted the cloture rule, which requires 3/5th of the Senators support to end the debate  Senators can put a hold on bills before debate that basically shows the intent to filibuster

Amendments to the Bill  House can vote on any changes to the bill, and amendments have to be relevant to the content of the bill  Senate doesn’t have this rule, so riders are often added to bills that have nothing to do with that bill; riders can create a Christmas Tree Bill because of all the added amendments for special interests

Voting on a Bill  3 ways votes can be cast:  Voice vote  Standing vote  Roll-call vote - each member casts vote either when called or electronically

Voting Pressures  Representatives and Senators face several pressures when casting votes:  pressure from constituents and own personal views  pressure from interest groups  pressure from party leaders  pressure from collegues to “ trade ” votes (logrolling)

Final Steps  Eventually, the House and Senate must vote and pass the identical bill  if different forms of the bill pass, then the Conference Committee is formed to work out a compromise  Bill must then pass an up-or-down vote in both houses (as it is - no changes allowed)

President ’ s role  President has 10 days to either:  sign the bill into law  veto the bill  take no action; it becomes a law after 10 days of no action if Congress is in session; if not, then the bill dies ( Pocket veto)  Congress then has a chance to override the veto with 2/3 majority vote in both houses