How a Bill Becomes a Law

The process of a bill becoming a law can be long and complicated with the potential of many changes being made to the bill itself. Although different setbacks can be annoying, it does ensure that each bill is tediously studied and discussed before becoming a law.

A bill may be written by any citizen of the United States. The only person that cannot write a bill is the President (currently Barack Obama). After the bill has been written completely and the writer of the bill has found a member of Congress to sponsor the bill, they will then either drop it in the mahogany box called the Hopper if it is originating in the House of Representatives, or hand it to the Clerk if it is originating in the Senate. Bills having to do with revenue or appropriation must originate in the House of Representatives. However, any other bill may originate in either of the chambers. The bill must be then recommended by the member of Congress who officially becomes the bills primary sponsor.

The bill will then be referred to the action committee where the presiding officer, the President in the Senate (Joe Biden aka the VP of the USA) or the Speaker of the House (Paul Ryan), will then send it to the subcommittee that has the most jurisdiction. Before 1995 a bill was sent to all the subcommittees that had any jurisdiction at the same time in a system called the Multiple Referral System. However, since 1995 the bill starts at the committee that has the most jurisdiction and then goes to the next committee in a Sequential System.

While the bill is in the subcommittee they will read over it and ask as many questions as possible. Each subcommittee is then able to make any changes to the bill that they see fit. Depending on the type of bill a Sunshine Law may be used to help get publicity for the bill. During this time the bill reading is open to the public and the subcommittee calls in experts to testify about any possible ramifications that a bill may have. After all of the subcommittees have finished their investigations and mark-ups the bill then moves back to the larger committee.

The larger committee then reviews all of the subcommittee’s findings and can make amendments as they see fit. The larger committee even has the power to rewrite the entire bill, and if done, the bill is then called a “Committee Bill.”  The larger committee then takes a vote to send the bill back to the originating Chamber. Most bills die here leaving only 6% of them to get passed to the other chamber. If the bill does get stuck in committee, then the members of the floor can sign either a Discharge Petition if it is in the House or a Discharge Motion if it is in the Senate. This has been tried over 800 times, but was only successful 24. In order for this to be successful the discharge must have a least 50%+1 of the signatures in the originating chamber(for the House this would be 216 and for the Senate it would be 51). IF this happens the bill with all of the subcommittee markups goes directly over to the other chamber. However, if the vote is passed through the larger chamber the committee staff prepares a written report explaining why they favor the bill and why they wish to see their amendments adopted. It is important to note that while the committee may make amendments to a bill, they do not become part of a bill until the originating chamber votes to keep the revisions.

Once a bill has been sent back to the House or Senate, it is placed on 1 of the 5 calendars in the House or 1 of the 2 calendars in the Senate. In the House, the bill is reviewed by the Rules Committee. This committee sets up rules for the consideration of the bill. One rule is called a closed rule; it has a strict time limit on debate and it limits the amount of amendments that can be added to the bill. This closed rule is becoming more and more popular. Another rule is called an open rule, where there is unlimited time for debate and an unlimited amount of amendments can be added (this means that even if the amendment has nothing to do with the actual bill itself it can still be added). Another rule is called the restrictive rule, which will allow some amendments, but not all, to be added to a bill that is on the floor (but only if they pertain to the bill). It is important to note that the type of rule can be changed if there is a 2/3s majority vote in favor of changing the rule. The Rules Committee can be useful in controlling debate and amending bills; however, it is not as powerful as once was. Once the rules have been set for the bill, the Speaker of the House (Paul Ryan) and the Majority leader (Kevin McCarthy) decide which bills can move on for debate. In the Senate there are no rules regarding debate, and the Senate majority leader (Mitch McConnell), with the consultation of the Senate minority leader (Harry Reid), will set a date for the bill to go to the floor. 

Bills are debated once they reach the floor. In the House, the Committee of the Whole discusses all revenue bill and most other bills. The Committee of the Whole is a quorum which consists of whoever is on the floor at the time as long as it consists of at least 100 members instead of the normal 218. The Mace is then taken down (the official symbol of authority) so the Committee Sponsor is able to lead the debate in a more relaxed setting. This quorum is able to debate the bill and can even make amendments to it, but it cannot officially pass it. Passing of a bill must be done by the chamber of Congress that the bill is in. Often times amendments that are completely unrelated to a bill are added in order to get the bill to pass; these amendments are called riders. When a bill has a large amount of riders it is called a Christmas-tree bill. When a member of Congress does not want a bill to pass, he can hold a Filibuster. Filibustering is a process where a member of Congress stays on the floor and won’t stop talking until the session ends to either, prevent the bill from being voted on, or allow his colleges more time to gather the needed votes to either pass or suppress a bill. It is recorded that Storm Thurmond’s 24 hour and 18 minute filibuster over the 1957 Civil Rights Bill is the longest filibuster to date. Since 1975 filibusters have only been effective 40% of the time. It is possible to break a Filibuster with a cloture rule if 16 Senators sign the rule to bring it for a vote. It requires three-fifths of the Senators to agree to end the Filibuster. However, the cloture rule is not used very often. If a senator filibusters a bill, once they have talked long enough, the bill will simply be shelved for the time being; this process is called double tracking.