Essay Example on How a Bill Becomes a Law

A bill is a proposal to change a law that already existed or a suggestion of a new law. The proposal is presented before Congress, and the members vote for the bill to become a law, or they may reject it. The bill may be under consideration in two different congress chambers that of the House of Representatives or the senate. Any of the members of the House of representatives or the senate have the power to propose a new law or propose a law to be changed. The paper will look at how a bill becomes a law in detail.

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The bills are officially introduced in the House by inserting them in a special box called the hopper. The hooper is located in the speakers' platform at the rostrum, and by placing the bill there, it officially becomes an official agenda of the House (Rodriguez, 2019). A bill in the senate is introduced by putting it on the desk of the presiding officer or it can also be introduced by presenting it on the senate floor formally. The bill is first introduced in the senate before it is forwarded to the House of representatives.

In Congress, various committees are appointed to investigate the debates. The committees were first introduced in Congress in 1789. The committees were created to help the members organize their work and also to oversee the discussions of the legislative processes. There are five types of committees: standing committees, select committees, subcommittees, the committee of the whole, and joint committees. The standing committees are the most common types of committees and are in charge of considering bills and legislations that are brought before the House of representatives. After a bill is introduced is the House, it is given a number and then sent by the speaker of the House to a standing committee. There are about 20 standing committees, and each of them stands for different areas of public policy. When the bill reaches the committee, it is reviewed, analyzed, and revised. After the committee members have thoroughly researched the bill, they decide whether or not to forward it to the House of representatives. Every member of the House has to serve in two outstanding committees.

The sub-committees are smaller committees of the outstanding committee. The members elected to serve I these sub-committees usually have specific skills to serve in a particular area of public policy. Just like the standing committees, they also hold a hearing where they research and review bills. They, however, report to the full committees instead of the House. Select committees are created for a certain period and are set to complete specific tasks. These tasks may include investigating government activity. There are, however, some exceptions of select committees that perform other tasks and are permanent. For instance the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence established in 1977 oversee security agencies such as department of justice, CIA nad FBI (Gaines, Goodwin, Bates, & Sin, 2019) . The select committee is different in that it is permanent and also it has the power to consider and evaluate bills after which it reports to the House floor. Joint committees consist of members of both the House of Representatives and the senate. They evaluate matters concerning Congress and not public policy. The Committee of the whole helps move bills quickly for a vote on the House floor.

A bill, therefore, becomes a law after the following of various steps, the first one being the creation of the bill. The members of both the House and Senate propose bills that should be considered by Congress. The second step is that of committee action where committees are assigned to study the bills. The main committees that are assigned this task are standing committees. The standing committee then may or may not assign the bill to the subcommittees. After the subcommittees have reported to the full committee, they make a recommendation.the next stage is that of floor action where a bill is returned to the House or Senate, where it is further debated and considered for approval. At this stage, the members may revise the bill by adding texts or presenting different versions of the bill. The nest stage is that of conference committees whare for a bill to be passed; it has to be accepted by either chamber of Congress. The conference committee helps to solve issues in the legislative differences between the two houses. A conference report is then generated, which recommends the common version which both chambers have agreed upon.

Conclusion

Both chambers then pass the bill after an agreement to the president. The signature of the president is required to show that he approves the bill, and if the president signs the bill, the bill is passed into law. If the president comments on the bill or refuses to sign, it is known as the veto, and the vetoed bill is returned to the Congress where it is reconsidered. If the president does not take any action in 10 days, the bill automatically becomes a law (Davies, 2016). If the president signs the law, it is assigned a number and then printed. It is then combined with other laws in that the laws that are similar fall together. The process, therefore, is how a bill us converted into law in the United Staes legislation. The US process of making law, therefore, sounds realistic since the stages are necessary to ensure that the laws passed are not in the interests of a specific group since it has to be analyzed and researched thoroughly.

References

Davies, L. (2016). Housing Bill becomes law–axe it!. Socialist Lawyer, (73), 10-10.

Gaines, B. J., Goodwin, M., Bates, S. H., & Sin, G. (2019). The study of legislative committees.

Rodriguez, A. (2019). A president, A scholar, and an immigration bill. Social Identities, 25(5), 724-741.