Lawmaking Overview Introduce a new bill. Committee work. Debate & vote. Repeat these first three steps in a second chamber. Work out a compromise between the two chambers. Send to Governor/President for approval or rejection If rejected, one chance to override the Executive.

Lawmaking Process: Introduction Any elected lawmaker can introduce a bill. The draft of the bill is given to the Legislative Reference Bureau – to be properly formatted and prepared for debate. It is assigned a number and given to the Presiding Officer of the chamber. The Presiding Officer decides to which committee the bill should be assigned. It gets read a 1st time to the whole chamber to introduce the bill to all lawmakers.

Lawmaking Process: Committee Work The committee(s) to which the bill is assigned review it and hold meetings where the public, experts, and other politicians can speak in favor of the bill or opposition to it. While in committee, the bill can be: Passed as it is. Amended and passed. Killed. (3/4 of all bills get killed in committee) If passed, it gets read a 2nd time to announce its survival and coming debate/vote.

Lawmaking Process: Debate & Vote After the 2nd reading the lawmakers decide how much time they need to prepare and schedule a day for debate. On the day debate starts, the bill is read a 3rd time. Debate takes place. Amendments can be made to change the bill. The bill is finally voted on. If it passes, it goes to the other chamber where the same process happens all over again.

Lawmaking: Conference Committees IF the second chamber makes ANY changes to the bill that was originally passed in the first chamber, then the differences need to be worked out. A Conference Committee is organized to try to create ONE compromise bill. (For this committee, a few Senators and a few Representatives are chosen by the legislative leadership.) The Conference Committee can change whatever it wants.

Lawmaking: Conference Committee Vote IF a conference committee can agree on a compromise version it gets sent back to both the House and Senate for their reivew. BOTH the House and Senate must pass the bill by a simple majority vote. No additional changes can be made to a conference committee version.

Lawmaking: Executive Signature or Veto If the compromise version gets approved by both chambers, it goes to the executive branch (President or Governor). The Executive can: Sign it. It becomes law. Refuse to sign it, whereby it becomes law without a signature. Veto it and send it back to the legislature.

Lawmaking: Response to a Veto If the Governor/President vetoes a bill, the legislature gets one more chance to make their bill a law. BOTH the House and the Senate can act to OVERRIDE A VETO. To OVERRIDE A VETO, both chambers must vote to pass the bill again. This time however they must have a 2/3 vote for passage. Otherwise the bill dies.