¶ … Bill Becomes Law How a Bill Becomes Law

How a Bill Becomes a Law

The Constitution of the United States divides the federal government into three separate, but equal branches. The legislative branch is responsible for the drafting and passage of legislation, or in other words, the Congress creates bills that can ultimately become laws. Since the Congress is divided into two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives, legislation can originate from wither of the two, with some exceptions for bills related to the collection of revenue which must originate in the House of Representatives. However, regardless of the origin of the legislation, a bill must pass both chambers of Congress before it can be sent to the Executive branch for ratification. But there are a number of hurdles that bills must overcome before this can happen.

A bill must be introduced by a member of Congress, which includes any member of the House of Representatives or Senate. Once a bill is introduced in either chamber of Congress it must be assigned to a committee for consideration. The committee assigned...

The sub-committee will then vote on the bill and if they pass it with a simple majority it will then return to the full committee, which may repeat the process of researching information, holding hearings, and making changes. The full committee will then vote "to decide if the bill will be 'reported out' of the committee for consideration by the entire legislative body." ("How a Bill Becomes Law")
Once a bill has moved out a committee, it can enter the full legislative body for consideration. In the House however, it must first go through a process in the Rules Committee which will set the rules for the debate on the bill. Whether or not a bill actually comes before the entire legislative body is almost entirely up to either the Speaker of the House or the Majority Leader of the Senate; each of which hold the power to schedule a bill for consideration. "A common tactic for 'killing' a bill is to delay scheduling of the bill so it will not…