A bill, which is a proposed law, must survive three stages before it becomes a law. It has to be approved by both chambers, which is made up of the Senate and House of Representatives, and by one or more standing committees, which is a permanent committee established in a legislature, usually focusing on a policy area. A bill can be killed during any of these stages. Most likely, a bill is to be killed since it is much easier. It could be pigeonholed, where it is assigned to a particular category or class, especially in a manner that is too rigid or exclusive, and is put aside for future consideration. When Congress is interested in a bill, they have quorums. Quorums are minimum amounts of members that must be present during congressional business. The proposed law must be introduced by a member of Congress. The sponsor for the bill is a person or organization the introduces, supports, and funds for a project or activity carried out by another. The bill is usually supported by being sponsored by several other members, which are called co-sponsors. The senator can use a tactic where they ask to be informed before a particular bill is brought to the floor. This stops the bill from coming to the floor until the hold is removed, which is called a Hold. The bill is sent to the clerk of the chamber, who gives it a number indicating whether the House or Senate bill number 1 for the Congress. The bill is then printed, distributed, and sent to the committee that is appropriate or the committees for consideration. The bill may have many parts to it's legislation that allows representatives to bring home the bacon to their districts in the form of public works programs, military bases, or other programs designed to benefit their districts directly called pork-barreling. For more benefits, congressmen sometimes trade off favors for each other, called logrolling. The bill may be public or private. The private bill is a proposal for a law that would apply to a particular individual or group of individuals, or corporate entity, while a public bill involves the general interests of the people at large or of the whole community.
First, action takes place within the committees after being referred by the speaker
- The committee who was given the bill usually refers it to one of their subcommittees, which consists of both House and Senate members, and they research the bill and decide whether to hold hearings on it.
- The subcommittees hearings provide the opportunity for those on both sides of the issue to voice their opinions.
- The bill is revised in subcommittee.
- The subcommittee votes to approve or defeat the bill. If they approve the bill, it is returned to the full committee.
- The full committee will either reject or send the bill to the House or Senate floor with a favorable recommendation.
Before a bill can be discussed in House, it must be discussed by the Rules Committee, which is an institution unique to the House of Representatives that reviews all bills (except revenue, budget, and appropriations bills) coming from a House committee before they go the the full House. The Speaker of the House may set time limits on committees. Bills are placed on the calendar, which has a list of bills that need to be reviewed, of the committee to which they have been assigned. The bill can be killed if it is not acted upon. Bills in the House can only be released from committee without a proper committee vote by a discharge petition, which is a petition that gives a majority of the House of Representatives the authority to bring an issue to the floor in the face of committee inaction, signed by a majority of the House membership.