APSE Home

Member Login

 

Introduction

Legislative Overview

Congressional Correspondence

Call to Action

Additional Information

Public Policy

Legislative Process

By: Celane McWhorter

How does a bill become law and when is “grassroots” pressure important?

Introduction

A bill is written, usually with the assistance of legislative counsel , a cadre of legislative language experts that can translate an idea into legislative language and dropped into the “hopper” by a Member of the House or Senate. Once introduced, it is assigned a bill number sequential to the introduction order. (eg H.R. 1180 or S. 980) It is then assigned to the appropriate jurisdictional committee by the leadership in the House and Senate.

Subcommittee Hearing

From the committee, the bill is generally referred down one more layer to the jurisdictional Subcommittee. The Subcommittee Chair, often in consultation with other Subcommittee members and leaders in the House or Senate, determines if this bill is going to be included in the Subcommittee agenda. If so, the first order of business is to schedule a public hearing, at which carefully selected witnesses are invited to testify before the subcommittee membership. The first request of an advocate following introduction is for a subcommittee hearing and for the opportunity to be represented at the witness table.

Subcommittee Mark-up

After the subcommittee hearing the successful bill will be “marked –up” in the subcommittee. This is when subcommittee members debate the bill, vote on amendments or otherwise change provisions in the bill. Finally, during mark-up subcommittee members vote on whether to pass the bill and send it to the next step: the full committee. These are the first actual votes taken on the bill and advocates work to ensure there are no damaging amendments and enough votes in the subcommittee to move the bill to the next step.

Committee Mark-up

Once the subcommittee completes work, the successful bill goes to the full committee, whose members follow a mark-up procedure identical to the Subcommittee proceeding . All members of the larger full committee have the opportunity to debate, discuss and change the bill. Again, the committee mark-up and vote is as important as the subcommittee mark-up and one advocates should watch very carefully.

Committee Report

When the committee completes work on the bill, a written report is prepared to accompany the bill to the House or Senate floor. The Report explains the intent of the committee, or the meaning of the provisions in the bill, most especially the amendments added to the bill. This is the opportunity the advocate has to include issues that did not make it into the actual legislative language. Report Language does not carry the same weight as legislative language, but the Report provides guidance to Federal agencies in writing regulations for bills signed into law and it is also used by courts in judicial interpretations.

Floor Debate

The full House/Senate are next in line to act on the successful bill. Prior to making it to the floor in the House most bills go to the Rules Committee which establishes parameters for floor debate: “Will there be amendments?; How many and what? How long will the House debate the bill?” Some minor measures that are less costly or non-controversial are brought directly floor under “suspension” – a process that limits debate and requires a 2/3 majority for passage. In the Senate these decisions are made by the leadership. However, more power is vested in any one Senator who can choose to prevent a bill from making it to the Senate floor by putting a “hold” on the bill or delaying a vote on the floor through a filibuster. The floor vote is all important. This is the time that the grassroots advocacy must be at its strongest to rally enough votes to pass in the House/Senate.

Other Body

Since legislation rarely passes through the House and Senate concurrently and in exactly the same form, once the bill passes through one body, advocacy efforts must be turned on the other body where the same process will take place from start to finish.

Conference

Once a bill is passed by both the House and Senate there is a process for ironing out differences that no doubt exist between the two bills. Generally a conference committee composed primarily of the originating subcommittee or committee members is appointed to take on this task. Sometimes the differences are ironed out through other negotiations, but the most typical next step is the conference committee. This is the group of people who have most say over the final form of the bill. Advocates closely follow this process and make sure they are able to get their messages heard by the conferees.

Conference Report

When the Conference Committee completes their work they file a report with the House and Senate along with the actual bill for final passage. Just as the Committee Conference Report is important, so is the Conference Committee report in assuring strong regulations. The Conference Report is voted on by both bodies for final congressional approval.

White House

The next step is presidential approval. Advocates are prepared to intervene at the White House with strong grassroots messages – “Sign this bill!” or, conversely, “Oppose this bill !” if it was too badly damaged during the congressional proceedings.

Federal Agency

The new law finally moves to the Federal agency for regulation and implementation. The agency will prepare regulations according to the requirements in the new statute and accompanying suggestions made through Committee Report and Conference Report language. The regulations are first published in the FEDERAL REGISTER as proposed regulations. The public is invited to review the proposed regulations and comment on them. The “comment period” is announced with the Notice of Proposed Regulations (NPRM). The agency takes into account any comments they receive from the public during that time. Of course, the agency will not automatically make changes because of a comment, but the comments are seriously considered by the agency. Based on the comments, the regulations are revised and once again announced in the FEDERAL REGISTER as Final Regulations and full implementation begins.