How a Bill Becomes a Law

Drafting legislation into a bill and then having that bill become law is not an easy process. In fact, only roughly 4% of bills drafted and introduced to Congress ever become law.
What does that tell you?

So then, how does a bill become a law
   See graphic on p.151

Not all bills are intended to become codified into law. Some bills are resolutions. Refer to p.150
Some bills are specific in what they address and some bills are very big (omnibus bills) and cover lots of issues. These types of bills are the most common place to find riders. They may be in the form of an earmark or some other type of pork-barrel project.

Basic flow of bills: (House of Representatives)
- Introduction
- Referral to Committee
- Referral to Sub-committee
- Hearings on bill
- Report back to Committee
- Markup by Committee
- Report back to full House
- Referred to Rules Committee & assigned rules
- Referred to Speaker for scheduling
- Introduced to the floor for debate (refer to p.153 on how debate functions in the House)
- Vote on bill
- Sent to the Senate
- Bill goes through senate process
- Vote in Senate
- Bill referred to Conference Committee
- Final bill vote in House
- Final bill vote in Senate
- President signs/vetoes

A classic!