Legislative process Research Essay

Legislative Procedure

The steps that must be taken in order for a proposed bill to become law are referred to as the legislative procedure. A proposed bill must be introduced into the floor of the house by one or more sponsors in order to become legislation in the United States. Thus, the introduction is the first step, and it is given a congressional number that starts with HR for house representatives and S for senators. As a result, the bill is made public in the congressional documents. The bill is then forwarded to House committee for consideration and action. In this stage the effect of the bill on the budget is analyzed and if approved proceeds to the subcommittee otherwise, the bill “has died in the committee.” The subcommittee studies the bill and where necessary solicits for a public hearing to enable interested parties to testify. Notices for the public hearing are published in the federal register. Any consideration during this markup stage requires the subcommittee to make any amendment before recommending the bill back to the full committee; otherwise, the “bill dies” if rejected. The full committee may decide to conduct a more public hearing. If voted for at this stage it’s reported to the Congress for publication indicating its potential effect on the economy and views of the people. The bill is then presented to the floor for debate before full house or senate. The bill then proceeds to full Congress for debate in favor or against. This stage is followed by voting on the basis of contribution. Any approval at this stage is forwarded to another chamber for discussion and amendment and if approved, proceeds to a conference for ionization of congressional views. If agreed the bill is passed by Congress and is sent to the president for signing into law or veto within ten days otherwise it “dies” after ten days. The Congress may, however, override the veto by a two-third majority (Longley, 2016).

Slip Law

After the legislative process, a number of versions emerge that categorize the enacted law into slip law, and session law. Slip law and session law are part of statute laws that are passed into law by a legislative assembly. The two law versions form part of the three known versions that includes coded version. The slip law thus becomes the first version of the enacted law. The slip law comprises of a single sheet or a pamphlet that is assigned a number for identification. The number known as Public Law Number has two parts where the first number displays the congressional number of either the House or Senate that passed the law. The second number shows the order of chronology of the law passed. Consider Pub. L. No. 112-25 indicates the 25th law enacted by 112th Congress. The slip laws exist in print or accessible online and are in volumes (Scott, 2016).

Session Law

When slip laws are bound chronologically, they become session laws. The session laws are bound to the congressional session that takes two years and consists of two sessions. The session law compilation is done by Statute at Large at the end of the congressional session. The Statute at Large does the collection with the help of Office of the Federal Register. Any proposed amendment, presidential proclamations concurrent resolutions, ratification during the session are also contained within the Statute at Large (Scott, 2016).

References

Longley, R. (2016). The U.S. Legislative Process: How Bills Become Laws. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from About news: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/legprocess.htm

Scott, P. (2016). First Year Legal Research Guide: Statutes and Codes. Retrieved January 27, 2017, from Loyola University Chicago: http://lawlibguides.luc.edu/c.php?g=610789&p=4239531