1. Legislative Process:
How a bill becomes a law

2. Who can propose a law? Anyone can suggest an idea for a law.
However, only a Member of Congress can take a proposed law to the House of Representatives or the Senate.

3. Introduction Bill must be introduced by a member of Congress.
Bill receives number
H.R. for House of Representatives
S. for Senate
Where do money bills begin?

4. The Standing Committee
This is a permanent committee in the House & Senate that studies bills.
Both the house and Senate have Standing committees. They exist because they deal with topics that always come up
i.e. Agriculture, Education, Defense
House Senate
Introduce Bills
Standing Committee

5. The Subcommittee After going to the Standing Committee
Bills are sent to a subcommittee
They are created for a purpose…Temp
A more detailed analysis of a bill.
Ex.: If it’s a bill about
education, what
specifically does it want to do?
Introduce Bill
Standing Committee
Subcommittee

6. Scheduling AKA Time Limits for Debate
Introduce Bill
Standing Committee
House Rules Committee
House Floor
Subcommittee
Senate: scheduling by the Majority Leader’s office
House Rules Committee – This Committee determines
the order in which bills come up for a vote on the House floor.
The Senate does not have a Rules Committee, This means that
There are no individual time limits in the Senate for debating bills.
Time limits for the House are per person to speak
Time limits for the Senate are overall time to pass the bill
dies
passes

7. Filibuster: When a Senator is talking a bill to death
Strom Thurmond- 24hrs and 18 min. straight filibuster]
against the Civil Rights Act of 1967 (longest recorded filibuster by one Senator in U.S. History)
For example: They read the dictionary, homemade recipe's (anything, because there is no time limit)
*There is a time limit for the House of Representatives
To prevent a handful of Senators from using a filibuster to halt the passage of a popular bill, the Senate adopted Cloture, 3/5 of Senate has to be in favor to end debate.

8. Conference Committee
Conference committees are created to resolve disputes between the House and Senate Versions of the bill
Remember that each comes up with their own version of the bill then they create one copy for the president look at. If they cannot agree, it starts over at the top.
Conference committees have members of both houses to accomplish this.

9. To the White House Review / soundings Options Sign
Law without signature. Bill sit on his desk for 10 days without signing it while Congress is in session, then becomes a law
Veto (subject to override)
Pocket veto. If, after 10 days, he has not signed it and Congress is no longer in session, the bill does not become a law
Line-Item Veto – The power of the President to remove specific spending items from bills passed by Congress. (In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled the line-item veto to be unconstitutional).

11. Terms to Know Veto Pocket Veto Bill Law Line Item Veto
Law without a Signature
Filibuster
Cloture
Committees
Scheduling