By Jennifer Nicoll Victor, Ph.D., George Mason University
Law making is a long and complex process. Before a bill can become a law in the United States, it has to be passed on the House floor. What all happens before a bill gets approved? Read in detail about the process.
Sponsoring a Bill
Let us use a hypothetical bill as a pedagogical device to understand the procedure of lawmaking.
Suppose a member of Congress has developed an interest in a particular topic. He is a member of the House of Representatives and he wants the House to pass a bill to declare a day as National Puppy Day.
This legislative idea could have come about because it could be that an organized interest group that supports puppies came to his congressional office and asked him to introduce this bill. It could be that he has some personal interest in celebrating puppies. Maybe he even campaigned on helping puppies, and he made commitments to the population that elected him.
There could be a number of motivations that can help a legislator to sponsor a bill and any of these is a perfectly good reason to do so.
Drafting and Submitting the Bill
To get the bill going, the legislator asks his legislative assistant to work with the relevant interest groups so that he can draft a bill that will reflect the needs of the community that it will affect. He might also have his staffer talk with other congressional offices to gauge interest among his colleagues.
Once the ideas are put together, they are taken to the Office of Legislative Counsel in the House, where there are lawyers who translate substantive ideas into appropriate language for laws. Once this formal draft is ready, it is submitted.
To submit the bill, the legislator signs his name on the back side, and asks his staffer to walk it to the House Chamber floor, which is in the southern wing of the Capitol building.
On reaching there, the staffer drops the bill in a box on the dais, called the hopper. Once in the hopper, the bill has been introduced.
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Assigning of the Bill to Committees
After the bill is introduced, it gets assigned to a relevant congressional committee, and then to a sub-committee. There are 20 permanent standing legislative committees in the House, each with its own defined jurisdiction.
Technically, it is up to the Speaker of the House to decide which committee to send a bill to, but in practice this is largely an administrative function. However, the Speaker does have the option of referring a bill to more than one committee, which can be done sequentially or concurrently. This is known as a multiple referral.
Typically, the bills are referred to just one committee. A multiple referral can significantly slow the process, which sometimes is just what the Speaker is going for, if it’s a bill they don’t prefer.
Legislative Hearing
If the committee decides to take some action on a bill, it has a few options. The committee might elect to hold a hearing. A legislative hearing is a bipartisan event hosted by a committee in which experts and principals who might be affected by the bill are invited to testify before the committee.
Invited witnesses provide written testimony, of any length, to be included in the official congressional record, and are allowed a limited time (typically five minutes) to provide oral testimony before the committee. Any member of the committee can ask questions of a witness, but committee members are also given a limited amount of time to do so.
However, the committee is not required to hold a hearing on any particular bill; it can take official action on a bill without having had a hearing.
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Markup by Committee Leadership
When the committee leadership decides to act on a bill, they hold a special meeting called a markup. At the markup, members can offer amendments and negotiate revisions to the bill.
Depending on the committee, this might be done strictly by majority rules, or it can sometimes happen in a more collaborative manner.
At the end of a markup, the committee takes a vote. If the bill passes out of committee, it goes on. If the vote fails, then the bill is dead.
House Committee on Rules
If a bill has a hearing and survives a markup, it must go through the House Committee on Rules, more commonly known as the Rules Committee, before it can go to the House floor.
The Rules Committee is very powerful. It decides everything from how long the bill can be debated on the floor to, most importantly, whether or not it can be amended on the House floor.
Closed versus Open Rule
An opponent of the bill might advocate for an open rule so that amendments could be added that would either change the bill in a way that would make it more pleasing to that person, or amended in a way that would make it more likely to fail on the House floor when it goes up for a vote.
On the other hand, no one can offer amendments to the bill while it is on the House floor under a closed rule.
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Bill on the House Floor
Once the bill has received its rule from the Rules Committee, it goes to the House floor. It may have to wait on a calendar, which is the order and timing of how items are brought to the floor.
Once on the floor, the bill is debated in a controlled and limited way, and ultimately voted on.
There are 435 voting members of the House, so a bill needs 218 votes to be passed. If it receives the support of a majority of House members, the bill is passed through the House chamber.
Common Questions about Sponsoring a Bill to Getting it Passed on the House Floor
The Speaker of the House decides which committee to send a bill to. He or she has the option of referring a bill to more than one committee, which can be done sequentially or concurrently. This is known as a multiple referral.
A legislative hearing is a bipartisan event hosted by a committee in which experts and principals who might be affected by a bill are invited to testify before the committee.
When the committee leadership decides to act on a bill, they hold a special meeting called a markup. At the markup, members can offer amendments and negotiate revisions to the bill.
