by J. Janie Lipsmeyer

Created on: January 22, 2009

Each year thousands of bills are brought before Congress for consideration for passage. Anyone can draft a bill, which is a proposed law drafted in specific, legal language.

Interest groups and the White House are the main source of these bills. However, only the House of Representatives or Senate can submit a bill for consideration. Few bills survive the process for passage. Some bills are mostly introduced as a favor to interest groups or constituent, while others are processed to grant citizenship to a constituent or for paying for settlement for damages caused by government agencies. Yet some bills when enacted may completely change the course of the nation.

Congress members provide riders, amendments that are not related to the bill and are intended to be carried along by another bill. Members of Congress use these riders to pass a bill that on their own do not stand a chance of getting enough support to pass. A bill must pass one procedure after another to get through the system.

The President, parties, constituents, groups, congressional and committee leadership signal members for their decision making. Although the President can have coffees, conferences and entertainment with the members of Congress and interest groups to influence them in passing or killing the bill, he is certainly not the dominant influence on the decision. In fact historically, the presidents usually have less influence on Congress than the members and interest groups.

Once Congress passes the bill, the President has the power to sign the bill into law, veto the bill, that is, rejects the bill and send it back to Congress with the reasons for rejecting it; or he can let it become law after ten working days by not doing anything. However, if Congress adjourns within these ten days, the President can decide to let the bill die by doing nothing, which is, neither signing nor vetoing it. This is commonly referred to as a pocket veto.

If the bill is vetoed, Congress can pass the vetoed law by getting a 2/3 majority vote of each house - the House of Representatives and Senate - and override the President's decision.

Many bills make a full circle in the law-making process, from the White House as part of the President's agenda, then returning to the President at the end of the process. The bill is considered in paralleled processes in the Senate and the House of Representatives, starting with committee action. If a committee gives a bill a favorable report, the whole chamber considers it. When

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>