Lawmaking Overview
1.
2.
3.
4.
Introduce a new bill.
Committee work.
Debate & vote.
Repeat these first three steps in a second
chamber.
5. Work out a compromise between the two
chambers.
6. Send to Governor/President for approval or
rejection
7. If rejected, one chance to override the
Executive.
Lawmaking Process: Introduction
• Any elected lawmaker can introduce a
bill.
• The draft of the bill is given to the
Legislative Reference Bureau – to be
properly formatted and prepared for
debate.
• It is assigned a number and given to
the Presiding Officer of the chamber.
• The Presiding Officer decides to which
committee the bill should be assigned.
• It gets read a 1st time to the whole
chamber to introduce the bill to all
lawmakers.
Lawmaking Process: Committee Work
The committee(s) to which the bill is
assigned review it and hold
meetings where the public, experts,
and other politicians can speak in
favor of the bill or opposition to it.
While in committee, the bill can be:
• Passed as it is.
• Amended and passed.
• Killed. (3/4 of all bills get killed in
committee)
If passed, it gets read a 2nd time to
announce its survival and coming
debate/vote.
Lawmaking Process: Debate & Vote
• After the 2nd reading the lawmakers
decide how much time they need to
prepare and schedule a day for
debate.
• On the day debate starts, the bill is
read a 3rd time.
• Debate takes place.
• Amendments can be made to change
the bill.
• The bill is finally voted on.
• If it passes, it goes to the other
chamber where the same process
happens all over again.
Lawmaking: Conference Committees
• IF the second chamber makes ANY
changes to the bill that was
originally passed in the first
chamber, then the differences need
to be worked out.
• A Conference Committee is
organized to try to create ONE
compromise bill.
• (For this committee, a few Senators
and a few Representatives are
chosen by the legislative leadership.)
• The Conference Committee can
change whatever it wants.
Lawmaking: Conference Committee Vote
• IF a conference committee can
agree on a compromise version
it gets sent back to both the
House and Senate for their
reivew.
• BOTH the House and Senate
must pass the bill by a simple
majority vote.
• No additional changes can be
made to a conference
committee version.
Lawmaking: Executive Signature or Veto
• If the compromise version gets
approved by both chambers, it goes
to the executive branch (President or
Governor).
The Executive can:
• Sign it. It becomes law.
• Refuse to sign it, whereby it
becomes law without a signature.
• Veto it and send it back to the
legislature.
Lawmaking: Response to a Veto
• If the Governor/President vetoes
a bill, the legislature gets one
more chance to make their bill a
law.
• BOTH the House and the Senate
can act to OVERRIDE A VETO.
• To OVERRIDE A VETO, both
chambers must vote to pass the
bill again. This time however
they must have a 2/3 vote for
passage.
• Otherwise the bill dies.