How a Bill Becomes a
Law
First Steps
 Bill is assigned to a committee
 In subcommittee, a bill goes through the following
phases:
 Phase 1: Hearings (pros and cons are given to the bill,
usually by the supporters or opponents)
 Phase 2: Markup (changes are made to the document
 Phase 3: Report (Vote on whether to send it back to
standing committee)
House Rules Committee
 Rules Committee determines what order bills are
debated, as well as the rules for the debate
 Chose to have a closed rule, which limits the floor
debate and amendments to a bill
 Chose to have an open rule, which allows floor
debate and introduction of amendments
 Speaker of the House has a lot of power with the
Rules Committee and can help set schedule and rules
House and Senate: Floor
Debate
 Using the Power of Recognition (no one can speak
unless first recognized by either the Speaker or the
majority leader), bills go through three main parts:
 general debate on the bill
 debate and voting on amendments to the bill
 voting on the final passage of the bill
House Floor Debate:
 Short time to debate - normally only one hour for both
pros and cons; give some floor time to colleagues who
want to speak on the bill
Senate Floor Debate
 Luxury of more time, so Senators can speak for
endless time if no limit established
 leads to filibusters (prolonged debate and other
delaying tactics aimed at blocking a bill favored by
the majority of lawmakers)
 1917 - Senate adopted the cloture rule, which
requires 3/5th of the Senators support to end the
debate
 Senators can put a hold on bills before debate that
basically shows the intent to filibuster
Amendments to the Bill
 House can vote on any changes to the bill, and
amendments have to be relevant to the content of the
bill
 Senate doesn’t have this rule, so riders are often added
to bills that have nothing to do with that bill; riders can
create a Christmas Tree Bill because of all the added
amendments for special interests
Voting on a Bill
 3 ways votes can be cast:
 Voice vote
 Standing vote
 Roll-call vote - each member casts vote either when called
or electronically
Voting Pressures
 Representatives and Senators face several pressures
when casting votes:
 pressure from constituents and own personal views
 pressure from interest groups
 pressure from party leaders
 pressure from collegues to “trade” votes (logrolling)
Final Steps
 Eventually, the House and Senate must vote and pass
the identical bill
 if different forms of the bill pass, then the Conference
Committee is formed to work out a compromise
 Bill must then pass an up-or-down vote in both houses (as
it is - no changes allowed)
President’s role
 President has 10 days to either:
 sign the bill into law
 veto the bill
 take no action; it becomes a law after 10 days of no action
if Congress is in session; if not, then the bill dies (Pocket
veto)
 Congress then has a chance to override the veto with 2/3
majority vote in both houses