HOW TO MAKE A BILL

Thousands of bills are introduced every year but only few hundreds are passed into law.

The following is a summary of how the bill makes its way from draft to being signed into law by the president.

1-Writting the bill

a senator a representative a constituent

The person who writes the bill may be

2- Introducing the bill

The bill is introduced in the senate or the house and it is assigned a number and its title and sponsors are published in the congressional records

3- Committees and Subcommittees

• The parliamentarians of the house and the senate assigns the bill to the committee with appropriate jurisdiction.

Bill

• The chair of the committee may then assign the bill to the most appropriate subcommittee.

Committee Subcommittee

4- Subcommittee Hearings

The subcommittee hold hearings on the bill and invite testimony from public and private

witnesses

Witnesses may be executive branch officials, experts, interest groups, or individuals.

5- Mark-up The Bill

Once the hearings are completed, The subcommittee may need to mark up the bill (the process of proposing and considering amendments to the bill).

It then votes on whether to report the bill favourably to the full committee. If not favourably reported, the bill dies.

6- send it back to full committeeThe committee may repeat the subcommittee’s

action: hearings, mark up, votes.

if the committee voted favourably on the bill , it is ordered to be reported to either

The full house of representatives The full senate

Note: depending on which chamber is considering the bill.

7- debate• When the bill reach the

floor of the house or the senate the membership of the entire body may debate it.

• At this point the bill may be further amended, referred back to committee or voted on.

8- referring to other chamber • If the bill is passed by the house or senate, it is

referred to the other chamber.

A house passed bill may be placed directly on the senate calendar, by passing the subcommittee and committee reviews

9- House VS Senate

If the senate and the house had different visions of the bill, a conference committee is appointed by the president of the senate and the speaker of the house to resolve the

differences.

If the conference are unable to reach agreement,

the legislation dies.

If they do reach an agreement, the bill is sent back to the both

chambers, which must vote on the bill without further amendments.

10- president signature

The president has 3 options:

1-Sign the bill into law.

2- Take no action, in which case the bill become a law

within ten days.

3-Veto the bill.

If both chambers approve the conference committee bill, it goes to the president for signature.

• In case of the presidential veto:

The president vetoed the

bill

Congress may veto the

presidential veto

If the congress succeeded to get

the two third majority the bill

will pass

Note: This requires a two third majority votes by both the

house and the senate.

If the congress failed to achieve a two third majority

in favour of the legislation, this bill

is killed.

THE END