SpeakOut.com Legislative Basics

The process by which a bill becomes a law is very involved and highly inefficient. As a result, very few pieces of legislation ultimately become law. In fact, an average of only 5% of the 10,000 to 12,000 bills that are introduced in a Congress become law. The key steps to understand are as follows (please note that this is a very basic overview).

1. Legislation is introduced by a Representative or Senator

2. The legislation is referred to one or more committees and subcommittees by the parliamentarian. Bills introduced in the House are sent to House Committees and subcommittees, and bills introduced in the Senate are sent to Senate Committees and subcommittees.

3. The subcommittee considers the legislation by holding special sessions where witnesses provide testimony about the legislation. These sessions are called hearings.

4. The subcommittee “marks-up” the legislation. In a “mark-up” session, the various members of the subcommittee decide what changes they would like to make to the bill. Controversial changes are voted on.

5. Once the bill has been “marked-up”, the subcommittee prepares a report about the bill explaining why they made the changes they did, and sends the bill to the full Committee for consideration.

6. The full Committee may or may not hold its own set of hearings.

7. The full Committee also holds a “markup” session, and then sends the bill to the entire House or Senate.

8. The entire House or Senate considers the legislation, and then members vote for or against passage.

9. After the bill is passed in one body (either the House or Senate), the other body has to consider the same bill.

10. If both bodies have passed the same legislation with minor differences, they resolve those differences in a conference committee (a special committee formed to resolve difference in House and Senate passed bills)

11. Once both bodies have passed the exact same versions of the legislation, the bill is sent to the President for signature or to be vetoed.

You can find out more about the legislative process on the House Web site: "How Our Laws Are Made."