11.3: The Legislative Process

As a legislature, Congress’s primary duty is the making of laws. The American lawmaking process is long and complex, and not every law follows exactly the same series of steps. However, in general the legislative process proceeds as described in this section (and summarized in Figure 11.2 below).

Figure 11.2: How a bill becomes a law (simplified)

The process begins when a member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or the Senate. This bill need not be written by the member who introduces it; often, bills are written by a representative’s or senator’s staff, by the president or other executive branch employees, or by an interest group, and then given to a member of Congress to introduce. Except for revenue bills (such as taxes, budgets, or tariffs), any bill can originate in either the House or the Senate.

Once a bill is introduced, it is referred to a committee and then a subcommittee for further review. Committees and subcommittees are small groups of members whose job it is to consider bills proposed on particular topics. A bill introduced in the House that would change immigration policy related to deportations might be referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The House Judiciary Committee, in turn, might refer the bill to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. The subcommittee to which a bill is referred reviews the bill, makes amendments to it as desired, and votes on whether to send it back to the committee. Once the subcommittee approves the bill, the full committee has its chance to review and amend the bill before voting on whether to send it back to the full chamber for consideration.

When a bill is sent by the committee back to the chamber where it originated (after being approved by the Rules Committee, if that chamber is the House), all members of that chamber can debate the bill and propose further amendments to it. Eventually, the chamber votes on whether to pass the bill. After passage in one chamber (if not before), the bill must be introduced in the other chamber, where it follows a similar process of referral, amendment, debate, and voting.

The versions of a bill passed by the House and the Senate may differ from one another due to amendments made by the subcommittees, committees, or full chambers. If so, a conference committee consisting of members from both chambers is appointed to reconcile those differences and combine the two bills into one. The reconciled version of a bill hammered out by a conference committee is then returned to both the House and the Senate. For the reconciled bill to move forward, both chambers must pass it unamended (because an amended bill would have to be reconciled with the other chamber’s bill again).

Once both chambers pass identical versions of a bill, it is sent to the president, who can choose to either sign the bill or veto it. A signed bill becomes law. A vetoed bill is returned to Congress, where it can still become a law with a two-thirds vote of both chambers to override the president’s veto.

The many steps of the lawmaking process explain why Congress often seems slow or unable to pass laws: there are many ways a bill can fail to become a law. Most bills “die in committee” by failing to clear the committee or subcommittee stage. Other bills are voted down by the chamber in which they originate, or pass one chamber but not the other, or are so amended by one or both chambers as to make the two versions impossible to reconcile. Even a reconciled bill approved by both chambers can be blocked by a presidential veto if Congress lacks the two-thirds consent required to override it (which is usually the case). Given all of these potential points of failure, members must craft bills carefully so as to avoid displeasing any person or group of people with the power to scuttle them.

Despite the many pitfalls a bill can face on its way to passage, Congress does in fact pass many laws. Most of the bills that make it through the gauntlet, however, are relatively minor and uncontroversial: the renaming of a post office, the awarding of a Congressional Medal of Honor, the reauthorization of existing policies due to expire, and so on. Major bills — the ones most discussed by politicians and the public alike — have a much harder time, and a much lower success rate, of surmounting the many obstacles on the way to becoming a law.