The origin of a law can come from all over; whether it be from the mind of an ordinary citizen, a cry out from a right’s group, a member or staff member of Congress, or from the President himself. However, to keep our system clean from unnecessary or even oppressive laws, the framers of our Constitution went to great steps of making the process of legislature becoming law a very long and tedious process. Many critics would argue that there’s inefficiency in the system, and that Congress takes too much time in a fast paced ever evolving country such as ours. But it’s this same legislative process that keeps the debates and passing of laws democratic The Birth; Proposal and Support
Once again; The idea of new legislation can come from anywhere, but it takes a member of Congress (the sponsor) to introduce it. There are four forms of legislation; Bills , simple resolutions, concurrent resolutions, and joint resolutions. “The large majority of legislation are bills. In the 109th Congress, Members introduced over 6400 bills, compared to 1100 simple resolutions, 500 concurrent resolutions, and 100 joint resolutions.” Upon introduction, a bill is given a number; HR signifying it being a House bill, S for a Senate bill. After the bill is introduced, the Library of Congress publishes copies of new legislation online on their web site. This is a great tool for citizens to stay informed on what is going on in their government.(Engel, E.) Subcommittee and Committee action
The Essay on How A Bill Becomes A Law
The road a bill takes to becoming a law is a long and tedious process. First, the proposed bill goes through the House of representatives. Once the bill has been approved by the House, it is then begins its journey through the Senate. After the bill has been endorsed by the Senate, the houses of congress then meet in conference committees to prepare the bill to be sent to the White House. To ...
The bill is then sent to a committee and or first a subcommittee who’s jurisdiction covers the nature of its legislature. There are 21 official House Committees and various subcommittees, and in many cases, the bill is sent to a variety of them. It is in this phase that nearly 90 percent of bills die. On account that most bills are usually very large in volume, the subcommittee is usually the first to receive the legislature. The subcommittee marks the bill on the committee calendar and holds hearings to establish the effectiveness of the bill and whether or not it will actually pass. Upon approval, the bill is sent to the full committee, where it is thoroughly investigated during hearings that include subject matter experts from all over to determine how it will benefit the country.
After these hearings and upon approval, the bills enter their “mark up” phase, where the committee may or may not add new amendments to the bill. A controversial note on the “mark up” phase is that this is when the “pork barreling” occurs, which are considered by critics as sneaky tactics to slide in unapproved spending or over-spending to the departments to which this bill may concern. After markup and surviving approval, the bill is then voted out of the committee and officially “Reported”, citing the bill and its updated amendments. Floor debate and the other chamber
Rules of debate vary between the House and Senate. House debates come with time restrictions as well as a Rule Committee to determine if a Representative may offer an amendtant. The Senator does not need approval and can offer amentands without warning. After amendments, the bill is then put up for a final majority vote before being approved for final passage. The bill is then referred to the other chamber where it will go through the same process as it did before. The other chamber can approve, reject, ignore, or amend the bill before sending it back to the original chamber. This is also a common phase in which legislature can die. Both chambers must come to agreement and reconcile both versions into one, and prepare a conference report. The President
The Term Paper on Dan Burton Committee House Indiana
When you think of psycho-conservatives and tenacious Republican partisanship, names like Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde come to mind but the name Dan Burton should definitely be on top of that list. Dan Burton, the Republican chair of the Government Reform committee and the representative of District #6 of Indiana has the reputation of a pit-bull in Congress. Burton was the House Republicans point ...
Once the conference report has been approved, the bill goes to the President. Once he approves and signs it, it becomes law. If no action is taken within ten days after the President receives the bill, it becomes law. If he rejects the bill, he can veto it, and in order for Congress to override the veto with a 2/3 majority in both Houses (290 votes in the House and 67 in the Senate).
If that can not be achieved, the bill does not become law.
References
Engel, E., (n.d).
How a Bill Becomes a Law, retrieved from http://engel.house.gov/index.cfm?SectionID=91 DeSilver, D., (2014).
Who’s poor in America? 50 years into the ‘War on Poverty,’ a data portrait from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/13/whos-poor-in-america-50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-a-data-portrait/
