Bill to Law

The process of turning bill into a law is often complex. It can take many routes during the journey into becoming a law. There is more than one way in which a bill can be rejected and fail. There are also many ways in which it can become a law. The constitution gives a description of how this process works in Article 1, Section 7. In this paper I will trace the process a bill goes through in Congress before reaching the president.

A bill is a form of legislation originating from either the House of Representatives, the Senate, The President or a member of the President's administration. According to Charles Johnson, "Article I. Section 7, of the Constitution provides that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives but that the Senate may propose or concur with amendments (Johnson)." It can be submitted to either the Senate or the House of Representatives. O introduce a bill, House representatives put the proposal in the hopper on the clerk's desk in the House Chamber (Hamilton,14). Before the process is complete, a bill must pass through both Houses and the President of the United States. Each of these three phases has a different procedure regarding bills becoming laws.

Committees are groups from either the House of Representatives or the Senate which analyze, review, and hear testimony regarding varying subjects. Sub-committees are more specialized and focus on a more specific subject. In total, the rules of the House and of the Senate each provide for over 200 different classifications of measures to be referred to committees (Johnson). Both the committees and sub-committees can hear testimony and analyze evidence for or against a proposed bill. Each member is provided only five minutes in the interrogation of each witness until each member of the committee who desires to question a witness has had an opportunity to do so (Johnson). According to Steve Mount, "bills typically concern a specific topic, like raising the pay of solders and most will fall into a specific sub-committees' area of responsibility (Mount)". The committee will then vote and decide the fate of the proposed bill with each member of the committee having one vote.

If the House's committee approves a bill, the bill is then sent to the House for review. Most are then referred to the so-called Committee of the Whole (Mount). "In order to expedite the consideration of bills and resolutions, the rules of the House provide for a parliamentary mechanism, known as the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, that enables the House to act with a quorum of less than the requisite majority of 218 (Johnson)." During this time, the House will read the bill and debate for or against the bill. Both of the main parties share equal time debating the bill. The Chairman keeps track of the time each speaker uses. According to Steve Mount, "when the time for debate is up, a second reading is done. After the second reading, amendments to the bill may be offered, debated upon, and voted upon" (Mount). According to Charles Johnson, "under the normal "open" amendment process, a Member is permitted five minutes to explain the proposed amendment, after which the Member who is first recognized by the Chair is allowed to speak for five minutes in the opposition to it. There is no further debate on that amendment, thereby effectively preventing filibuster-like tactics" (Johnson). After the second reading, the House will vote in favor or against the bill. There are three ways in which to vote in the House. By the voice vote, the division vote, and the recorded vote (Johnson). The yay-nay vote is the most common. According to Charles Johnson, "To conduct a voice vote the Chair puts the question: "As many as are in favor (as the question may be) say 'Aye'. As many as are opposed, say 'No' (Johnson)." If the Chair is unable to determine the results by volume the House re-votes by having each member stand and then be seated as they are counted. The rules of the House require a three-fifths vote to pass a bill (Johnson).

If the Senate's committee approves a bill, the bill is then sent to the Senate for review. "The Senate committees give the bill the same detailed consideration as it received in the House and may report it with or without amendment (Johnson)." Members of the Senate are able to object and offer amendments at this time. According to Mount, "If objection was offered, then each Senator has the opportunity to speak on the bill for as long as he or she wishes. From time to time, a Senator may "filibuster" by speaking about a bill for an extended period of time, never yielding the floor to another Senator (Mount). After all amendments are offered and voted upon, and all Senators who wish to talk have had a chance to, the bill is put forth for a vote (Mount).

If the proposed bill originated in the House, the Senate would then review, edit, and vote the bill. If the proposed bill originated in the Senate the House would review, edit, and vote on the bill. Once that process is complete, the bill is sent back to the originating Congress. If the originating Congress of the bill does not agree with any of the possible revisions made, then a conference is set in to action. The conference committee is sometimes popularly referred to as the "Third House of Congress" (Johnson). The conferees are strictly limited in their consideration to matters in disagreement between the two Houses (Johnson). The conference committee will not make changes to the bill which are not amended. According to Charles Johnson, "There are generally four forms of recommendations available to the conferees when reporting back to their bodies: (1) The Senate recede from all (or certain of) its amendments. (2). The House recede from its disagreement to all (or certain of) the Senate amendments and agree thereto. (3) The House recede from its disagreement to all (or certain of) the Senate amendments and agree thereto with amendments. (4) The House recede from all (or certain of) its amendments to the Senate amendments or its amendments to Senate bill. (Johnson)"

Once the