Lawmaking, Functions, Congress, Bill to Law, Constitution, Lawmaking Process, Citizens' Rights, Tax Bill, Senate, House of Representatives, Numbered Bills, Congressional Committees, Subcommittees, Full Body Referral, Floor Debate, Floor Vote, Conference Committee, President, Veto, Pocket Veto, Congressional Hearings, Pigeonholing, Markups, Chambers, How a Bill Becomes a Law,
Transcript:
Making laws is one of the central functions of Congress.
The purpose of this video is to explain the process of moving a bill through the two chambers of Congress in order to create laws. The framers of the constitution designed the process of lawmaking as cumbersome and slow in order to circumvent infringement on citizens' rights and beliefs.
A member of Congress may only introduce a bill. Once introduced, it is assigned a designation number, which consists of an alphabetic abbreviation, the bill type, and a unique number. Some bills are limited as to where they can originate, such as a tax bill can only originate in the House.
Once introduced, the leader of the House or chamber refers the bill to an appropriate committee or committees. These committees have jurisdiction over the provisions in the bill as determined by either the chamber's standing rules or past referral decisions. Most bills fall under the jurisdiction of one committee.
What is referred to as committee action means the bills might be further passed on to a sub-committee. A subcommittee is often established to divide the committee's workload. Hearings can take place where witnesses might give a presentation on the various viewpoints. Further, a markup is a process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation. Congressional bills are sometimes set aside in committee without consideration. This is referred to as pigeonholing.
Assuming the bill gets out of committee, it then comes before the full body of the House and Senate, respectively, for debate and amendment and then final passage. There are different rules of procedure that govern the debate in the House and the debate in the Senate. In the House, permission must be granted to offer an amendment. In the Senate, there are not those restrictions.
Often a bill can contain significantly different versions of the same bill. When this happens, the bill will go to the Conference Committee for reconciliation and reconsideration so that the same wording is presented by both chambers. If an agreement is reached, the Conference Committee prepares a report and recommendations for changes. Both chambers must approve the changes, and if either disapproves, the bill dies.
Assuming the conference report is approved by both Houses, the final bill goes to the President. The president, if he approves of the legislation, he will sign it, and law is born. The president might not take action for ten days while Congress is in session, and the bill automatically becomes law. If the President opposes the bill, he will either veto or reject it, or if the Congress is not in session, he can take no action, and a "pocket veto" occurs, and the legislation dies.
If Congress so decides, they might override the President veto. However, a 2/3rds roll call vote of the members present in sufficient numbers for a quorum.
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