How a Bill Becomes a Law

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Creating laws is the most important job for the United States House of Representatives. All laws in the United States begin as bills. Before a bill can become a law, it has to be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the President.

A law begins as an idea. The idea can come from a member of the House of Representatives or the Senate or from a citizen like you. Citizens who have ideas for laws can contact their local representatives to talk about their ideas. If the representative agrees, they can research the idea and write them into bills. Have you ever heard of people in your town petitioning for a new law to be made? Once people make a petition they give it to the local representative and maybe it can become a bill and one day a law.

When a Representative writes a bill, it needs a sponsor. The representative might talk with other representatives about the bill and hope to get their support for it. Once that is done they can announce it or introduce it. A bill is introduced when it’s placed in the hopper. A hopper a special box on the side of the clerk’s desk and only representatives can introduce bills in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill clerk assigns it a number that begins with H.R. A reading clerk then reads it to all the representatives, and the Speaker of the House sends the bill to one of the standing committees. A standing committee is the group that is responsible for researching and revising bills that are being considered to become a law. The committee members are experts on topics such as agriculture, education, finance, military, or international matters. They go over the bill before voting on whether or not to send the bill back to the House of Representatives. If they do not agree with the bill it dies, or never becomes a law. If they agree with the bill but decide it needs to be researched more, they send it to a subcommittee. Subcommittees are even more specialized. If the bill is about the military a subcommittee may be, Military Nuclear Weapons, or Military Pay. Witnesses may be called to state why the bill is needed. If it’s approved then the standing committee gets it back. When the committee finally approves a bill it is ready to be debated by the U.S. House of Representatives.

When a bill is debated, or discussed, the representatives talk about the bill and explain why they agree or disagree with it. Then a reading clerk reads the bill. Representatives advise what changes should be made. When all the changes have been made, it is ready to be voted on. There are three ways for voting on a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. Voice vote is when the Speaker of the House asks the representatives