Essay On The Process Of Law Making In Congress

The Process of Law Making In the American Congress
Anyone in the United States of America can write a bill that they hope will become a law, but it must be introduced by a member of Congress. Either side of Congress, the House of Representatives or the Senate, can introduce the bill for legislation. Whoever introduces the bill becomes the sponsor and others senators or representative, depending on which side is introducing the bill, can become co-sponsors showing their support. It is then given a number starting with S, for Senate, or HR, for House of Representative, and referred to a committee or committees that has jurisdiction over the area that the legislation will affect. Sometimes, a bill is referred to a subcommittee first to decide how the bill should move forward.

“When the hearings are completed, the subcommittee may meet to mark up the bill, that is, make changes and amendments prior to recommending the bill to the full committee. If a subcommittee votes not to report legislation to the full committee, the bill dies.” Otherwise, the subcommittee shares their information with the overall committee and the chairman moves to vote the bill out of Committee. A report of the bill is made by the committee that explains what it is trying to do and information about hearings that occurred in Committee, how it may affect any existing legislation, the opinion of the majority of the members that support the action being taken on the bill as well as a report from the minority opinion of those that do not support the action being made on the bill of the committee.