The Constitutional Topics pages at the USConstitution.net site are presented
to delve deeper into topics than can be provided on the Glossary Page or in the FAQ
pages. This Topic Page concerns Laws – or, more specifically, how a bill
becomes a law. The general process is described in the Constitution in Article 1, Section 7.
This page is a concise overview of the entire process and though it does go
into some detail, there are many it leaves out. For an exhaustive read of the
full legislative process, see How
Our Laws Are Made, a publication of the Library of Congress.
The general process for making a bill into a law is described in the
Constitution. As with many things, however, the Constitution leaves most of
the details to the people of the day, dictating just the overall picture.
Before we delve into those details, however, a look at the general process is
useful.
First, a bill must pass both houses of Congress by a majority vote. After
it has passed out of Congress, it is sent along to the President. If the
President signs the bill, it becomes law.
The President might not sign the bill, however. If he specifically rejects
the bill, called a veto, the bill returns to Congress. There it is voted on
again, and if both houses of Congress pass the bill again, but this time by a
two-thirds majority, then the bill becomes law without the President’s
signature. This is called “overriding a veto,” and is difficult to do because
of the two-thirds majority requirement.
Alternately, the President can sit on the bill, taking no action on it at
all. If the President takes no action at all, and ten days passes (not
including Sundays), the bill becomes law without the President’s signature.
However, if the Congress has adjourned before the ten days passes and without a
Presidential signature, the bill fails. This is known as a pocket veto.
The process laid out in the Constitution is relatively complicated when it
comes to vetoes, but pretty simple when it comes to approving a bill. But in
reality, there is a lot more to law making than these steps spelled out in a
clause of the Constitution.
Submitting a Bill
Bills originate from several different sources, but primarily from individual
members of Congress. In addition, bills might be brought to a member by a
constituent or by a group of constituents; a bill can be submitted to a member
of Congress by one or more state legislatures; or the President or his
administration might suggest a bill.
However it is brought to the attention of a member, it must be submitted for
consideration by the member. In the House, Representatives need merely drop a
copy of a bill into a bin specifically placed to receive new bills. In the
Senate, the bill is given to a clerk at the President’s desk.
Bills can be introduced in either house, though as noted above, a bill must
eventually pass both houses to become law. The exception to this is that bills
for raising revenue must originate in the House, and never in the Senate.
Committees
Both houses of Congress, the House and the Senate, are divided into large
groups called Committees, with most committees divided yet again into
Subcommittees. Each Committee tends to a general topic in the nation’s
business, like Finance or the Military. Subcommittees are even more
specialized, with one on, for example, Military Nuclear Weapons, and another on
Military Pay.
Bills typically concern a specific topic, like raising the pay of soldiers.
Most will, then, fall into a specific sub-committee’s area of responsibility.
There is a Subcommittee on Pay, Promotion, and Retirement that would consider
the pay bill. Once a bill is introduced, it is assigned to a committee. A bill
is scheduled to have hearings, at which time witnesses may be called to testify
as to why a bill is needed, and sub-committee members ask questions of the
witnesses to determine the need or validity of the bill. Once the hearings are
held, the members of the subcommittee will then vote on the bill to see if it
should proceed further, on to the full committee. If the vote fails, then the
bill dies.
Some bills are broad enough to warrant direct consideration by the full
committee itself. These types of bills, and bills that are referred to the full
committee by a subcommittee, are debated in the committee, which might call
witnesses, too. Finally, a vote on the bill is taken at the committee level.
If the bill is defeated in the committee vote, it dies. If it passes, a
committee report is attached to the bill and it is sent to the full house.
House Procedure
In the House, a bill approved by a committee is referred to the whole House.
Most are then referred to the so-called Committee of the Whole, which consists
of all members of the House, but with a much lower quorum requirement. Once in
the Committee of the Whole, it is read and debated upon. During this general
debate, time is allotted for debate, with equal amounts of that time given to
the two main parties in the House. When the time for debate is up, a second
reading is done. After the second reading, amendments to the bill may be
offered, debated upon, and voted upon. Once the Committee of the Whole is done
with the bill, it is referred back to the full House. Note that a bill cannot
be killed in the Committee of the Whole, although amendments may be placed on
the bill that make it undesirable. This is often known as a “poison pill.”.
Once in the hands of the full House, the amendments placed on the bill by the
Committee of the Whole are voted upon – they can be voted upon en masse or one
at a time. After that, one of two votes can happen – either a vote to recommit
(which can send the bill back to committee if approved), or a vote on the bill,
as amended. If a recommit vote fails, a full vote is taken.
If a bill passes, it is organized and published. The House uses blue paper
for approved bills.
Senate Procedure
After a Senate committee refers a bill to the full Senate, it can take one of
two main roads. In some cases, with emergency or other non-controversial bills,
a simple voice vote is taken of the Senate, and the bill either passes or fails.
Amendment is possible even when the simple voice vote can be used. If consent
for a voice vote is not available, the bill is placed on the calendar for review
by the entire Senate at a later date.
When the bill’s time comes up, objection can be noted. If no objection is
noted, each Senator has five minutes to speak on the bill. During this time,
amendments may be offered. If objection was offered, then each Senator has the
opportunity to speak on the bill for as long as he or she wishes. From time to
time, a Senator may “filibuster” by speaking about a bill for an extended period
of time, never yielding the floor to another Senator. This is usually, at most,
a delaying tactic, since a single member cannot speak for an indefinite amount
of time. By combining forces with other Senators, however, it can be an
effective tool for stopping action on an item, or for forcing compromise on an
item.
After all amendments are offered and voted upon, and all Senators who wish to
talk have had a chance to, the bill is put forth for a vote.
Conference
Once a bill leaves the House and the Senate, it must be checked. If anything
in the two versions of the bill differ, in any way (even in something as minor
as punctuation), the bill must be reconciled. The house in which the bill
originated is given a copy of the bill with its differences. For example, if
the House originated a bill, then sent it along to the Senate for consideration,
and the Senate made changes, the bill is sent back to the House. If the changes
are minor, they might be accepted by the originating house with no debate. If
changes are of a more substantial nature, however, a conference is called
for.
In a conference, a number of Representative and a number of Senators meet to
work out the differences in the two versions of the bill. The people in the
conference committee are known as managers. The number of managers from each
house of Congress is of little concern, because the managers from each house
vote separately. So, for example, a conference committee might have ten
Representatives and seven Senators. Managers are not allowed to substantially
change the bill. They may add an amendment from one bill into the other, or take
out an amendment added but not in the other. But they cannot add new amendments
to both versions of the bill. When there is disagreement, new text, which might
be a compromise between two versions, can be proposed. But the changes must be
consistent with the bill itself.
Following negotiations, the managers make reports back to their houses, that
they were able to agree on the bill, able to agree only on some parts of the
bill, or were unable to agree at all on the bill. If the first case, the bill
is revoted upon in both houses. If the latter two cases, the bill may go back
to a new conference committee, referred back to the committees in the two
houses, or it may just die because the differences are too vast to bridge.
On to the President
Regardless of how it leaves the Congress, once it does, it goes to the
President for his signature. Note that the legislative process does not operate
in a vacuum, and the President, or his staff, has been tracking bills that pass
the Congress. A bill showing up on the President’s desk, then, is never a
surprise. In all likelihood, the President has commented on the bill,
indicating his likelihood of signing it, perhaps indicating that he will veto it
unless certain provisions are in the bill, and so on. By the time the President
officially sees the bill, it is either in accordance with his wishes, or in
defiance of them.
Officially, all bills that pass both houses are signed by the Speaker of the
House and the President (or President Pro Tem) of the Senate before being
presented to the President. This process does not usually include any
politicized delays, but it could delay a bill a day or two. Then, the bill is
delivered to the President and the 10-day clock starts to tick.
The President may sign the bill at any time after its deliverance. If it
sits unsigned for more than the 10-day period, it becomes law regardless of his
signature or not. The exception to this 10-day period is commonly called a
pocket veto. In a pocket veto, the President can kill a bill if it goes
unsigned and Congress adjourns prior to the 10-day time limit. The term
“pocket veto” comes from the fact that if the President knows an adjournment is
coming, he can place the bill in his pocket and forget about it. Note that the
general interpretation of the adjournment needed for a pocket veto does not
include short-term adjournments; only when the Congress adjourns “sine die,”
or, basically, for good. This might be when a Congress ends before the next
begins, or during an extended adjournment during a seasonal break.
If the President vetoes the bill, a veto message is sent back to Congress.
The message contains the President’s objections to the bill. The two houses of
Congress may decide to revote on the issue right away. Normally, it is known if
enough members will vote to override the bill (two-thirds is needed). If such a
majority exists, the revote is almost guaranteed. If no immediate revote is
taken, the bill can be tabled for later vote or sent back to the committee to
have further work done. If a vote is taken to override, and the vote fails, the
bill dies.
The Bill Becomes Law
Officially, after the President signs the bill, 10 days passes without a
signature, or after a veto override, the bill is considered law. It is in
effect at that moment. But in reality, it is, of course, more difficult than
that.
The law is transmitted to the Archivist of the United States. The Archivist
assigns the law a number. The Archivist publishes the law on its own, as a
pamphlet. This is known as a slip law. The slip law contains a lot more than
just the text of the law itself, such as where it is be inserted in the United
States Code, if at all; its legislative history; the committees through which
it passed; and so on. In effect, the slip law is a historical document in
itself.
The law is also published in the United States Statutes at Large, The
Statutes at Large is a collection of all laws passed in any given Congress.
Finally, if a law affects the U.S. Code, it is added to the Code, striking out
sections or clauses that a law removes, and adding new ones the law created.
The entire U.S. Code is republished every six years.