Things You Should Know About the Legislative Process
There is need to read more here about the way the government works since this tends to be the first step towards getting involved therefore makes positive changes through the legislature view here! There are thousands of bills that get introduced to Congress each year view here for more. However many people tend not to understand how the legislative process works despite the impacts these bills can have click here for more. There is much need to learn more about these five facts as it gives an insight about the US legislative system check it out!
There are two houses in the legislative branch. The first one is the House of Representatives and the second one is the Senate. This was brought about by the Great Compromise of 1787. After every two years the member of the lower chamber are elected. The number of representatives are determined by the population level with each state guaranteed to have one representative. On the other hand the Senate which is the upper chamber, its members are elected every six years here! There can be no change based on state population.
The lawmaking process. New laws are drafted in a process where a member of the Congress introduces a bill. A bill is defined as a law that is proposed either by someone in the House of Representatives or by the Senate. Upon introduction of this bill it then goes to a committee for consideration which is comprised of experts on specific subjects. This bill can either be rejected or approved. Being rejected in this stage means that it will not go further but if approved the law will go on the next process click for more. Approved bills go to the full chamber now where members of the congress debate and vote on it. It’s after the bill passes both the House and the Senate that it goes to the President now! In here the President can either sign the bill into law or veto it which failure to such options within three days, the bill now becomes law automatically.
Filibuster. This tends to be a legislative tactic used by lawmakers to delay or prevent drafting new laws. The bill is talked about for an extended period of time. Given that the Senate rules says that any senator can talk about a bill for as long as they want unless three-fifth of the senate votes to end the debate, it means that filibuster can be used to delay and prevent a bill from being voted. Although there are considerable debates about reforming or removing filibuster it’s unlikely that it will change in the future.
There is also conference committees. The differences between the House as well as the Senate are resolved by the conference committee. There are differences resolved by this committee which emanates from the two houses passing different versions of a bill. The committee therefore makes significant changes to the bill or negotiates new provisions. Upon completion of this product new version, its then voted for which later goes to the president.
The last one is the Presidential veto. Although presidents are very powerful they however do not have the ability to make new laws without working with the Congress. This bill is signed, ignored or vetoed by the President within ten days.