Destruction Of Lawmaking

U.S. Lawmaking and the Obstruction of Bills Oftentimes, the federal law making process is long and arduous. This is largely because the federal legislative system is extremely complex. In essence, the law making process is what happens to a bill as it makes its way through Congress to hopefully become a law. Dozens of methods are available to stop a bill as it goes through the legislative procedure. Of the 25,000 bills introduced each term of Congress, only around 10 percent survive and actually become laws. The first step of a bill becoming a law is introducing the bill. Introduction of a bill means, “putting a formal proposal before the House or the Senate.” Only members of Congress can introduce legislation, and the member(s) who do the

After being reported to the full House, the bill is also placed onto the House Calendar. Though, before it is placed on the calendar, the committee staff must produce a written report. It must include a report on why they favor the bill and why they would like to see their amendments adopted; a dissenting opinion from the opposition to the bill may also be represented in the report. Next, the Rules Committee schedules a bill for floor action or it is dropped altogether. If passed on for floor action, the Rules Committee sets the rules that will govern the floor debate. Governing rules can limit time of the debate, amendments that can be discussed during debate, and how the debate is run. Rules decided by the Rules Committee largely impact whether or not the bill will become law. A method is available to bypass the rules, and that is if members give a 2/3 vote to suspend the rules. Rare cases allow for undisputed bills to be passed right then and there if unanimous consent is reached. When rules are set, the bill finally goes to the floor of the House for debate. Here, the rules have been set by the Rules Committee. Proponents and opponents for the bill have equal time to talk about the bill, but, unlike in the Senate, riders are not allowed and amendments have to be germane to the bill’s subject matter. Debate begins with a complete reading of the bill, and at the end there is a third reading of just the title if there has been additions of any amendments. Every member’s vote is recorded in a roll-call vote. Finally, a simple majority of 218 of 435 is required for the bill to move to the