It’s somewhat embarassing to admit I don’t know this. But better to admit ignorance than hold it.
In recent discussions about bills and laws and such, I realized there was a glaring gap in my knowledge of the subject. I basically don’t know how they get started.
Let’s say for example that I’ve been elected to the US House of Representatives and have just been sworn in to office. It’s the first day in session. I decide I want to pass a law outlawing ATM fees. How exactly do I get the ball rolling? I’m sort of assuming I have one of my assistants write it all up nice and law like. But then what? Do I have to get the Speaker of the House’s attention and have him give the go-ahead? Do I submit it to the House Subcommittee on Banking Regulations? Do I tell everybody “Hey guys, I got this neat idea. Let’s all vote on this and make ourselves a law here.” What exactly is the trigger that changes something going from being a written proposal to an actual bill being considered for passage?
And what are my rights as a Congressman to propose laws. Suppose my ATM Bill gets shot down. But I’ve become a True Believer. Every day I resubmit my proposal because I know that eventually I’ll wear down my opponents and they’ll see the light and pass it. Is there something to prevent me from submitting the same proposal over and over again?
What happens if my ATM Bill gets on the table and some other Congressman decides that he’s always been annoyed by videostore late fees and wants to add a prohibition on them to my bill? Do I have proprietory rights on the bill I introduced or can anyone amend it? Can I start adding my ATM proposal to other people’s bills?
What’s the procedure with getting the Senate to go along with me? I know I need to have both houses pass my bill in order for it to become a law. Is there some procedure for me asking a Senator to propose my bill in the Senate or do I have to just hope somebody over there likes the sound of it? Do House and Senate bills generally go in parallel or do they wait for it to pass one side before being proposed in the other?
I also know that in some cases the House and Senate versions of a bill get passed in different wordings and have to be reconciled. How does the committee organize this? Once the reconclied bill is finalized by the committee does it have to be repassed by the House and Senate or is it automatically considered to have been passed based on the passage of the original versions of the bill?
You write your law and drop it in a box in the house of congress of which you are a member.
This was the method I learned. They might now use some super-duper electronic method.
However, basically you write the law you want to propose and submit it to your house’s leadership through whatever channel is in use at the time.
I suspect that it is rare that the member wanting to propose a law hasn’t already alerted his party’s leaders that he intends to do so, and lined up at least a little support.
That’s Schoolhouse Rock (warning: not the official site), although school children would probably be scared by the truth about how laws are made (including that the lawmakers sometimes don’t know what they’re voting on).
Sad to admit but the lyrics of “I’m Just a Bill” was one of the major sources of my knowledge on this subject. However, it’s a little light on specifics:
You, the Legislator, have an idea that “there oughta be a law” about something. Or one of your staff has the idea. Or someone from the public brings it up (BUT look to step 5b). Or you spot the idea while lurking the SDMB or reading the papers.
You tell a staffer about it and say “let’s do something about this”. If it’s just an underling, go to step 4.
If OTOH it’s a highly trusted confidant/mentor type whose wisdom you value, Opal will tell you if that’s a good or bad idea and that it’s your call if you want to go ahead with it; for the sake of discussion, you say go.
The idea is passed to your staffers who know about that issue, or to someone at the Congressional Research Office (or your Statehouse equivalent, if you’re at a state level), and/or to the lobbyist for the relevant interest group who has you in their pocket .
That person or persons do the research to find out if it’s not redundant, if it’s even possible, what amendments to the US Code it would go under in order to achieve your goal, and what potential pitfalls it entails. They prepare a draft of a bill formatted according to your House’s rules, and give you a brief of what exactly is it that would happen. You (or your staffer-in-charge) may go back and forth with them a few times until it’s what you wanted.
5a.If you’re insecure about claiming credit for legislation, you have your people just draft a rough approximation of what you want into proper format and skip right to #7 to file the half-baked bill, just so it’ll have your name on it.
5b. Of course, it may be that it’s the lobbyist in whose pocket you are, who already brought ya the bill full-drawn, with a note saying it’s time to pay the piper. In that case ignore the above steps and start here.
NOTE: The above steps may happen over the course of a single meeting in your office, if it’s not too complicated an idea and those present are familiar enough with the issue that they can nail exactly what needs be done w/o external assist; or if 5b applies.
All the while steps 4 through 8 are taking place, you WILL speak to colleagues (or your people speak to their people) to see if they’ll cosponsor your bill. Helps if you get powerful/respected/majority (not all three always describe the same person) sponsors, and your ideal is to get the chairman and ranking members of the committee that would handle the bill (it’ll cost ya…). And Og help you if you file something controversial and potentially contrary to your party’s interests w/o at least giving the floor leader or whip a heads-up of what’s coming.
You file the properly formatted bill before the Clerk of your legislative body. As mentioned, historically in Congress this is done by depositing it in a special drop box. In the legislature I’ve worked for you send a gofer with the original signed bill to the Record Clerk’s office to get it filed, stamped and get an official mumber on the receipt, and e-zap the text (many here give the gofer a diskette or USB flashdrive with the text, or upload the draft unto a shared folder in the network and give the gofer the address, so the Record Clerk just copies it on the spot as he issues the receipt).
THEN the “How A Bill Becomes Law” process (look it up) begins.
8a. For Congress and other legislatures w/o the single-subject rule: You have a staffer keep an eye out for any other, larger bill likelier to be approved, and at the appropriate point in the process in committee or before the Whole, move for an amendment that the text in your proposal be tacked on to THAT bill as a rider so that you can get it moving.
Lather, rinse, repeat… ** NOTICE I’ve completely ignored the aspect of previously probing public opinion to see how your idea would be greeted, or working on said public opinion to turn it favorably once you’ve stepped forward**… *that * is practical politics, as opposed to legislative procedure…
I’ll just add that a number of states have a legislative staff office of what is variously termed, but in New York is the Legislative Bill Drafting Service. You tell them, “I want to amend the Banking Law to prohibit ATM fees as of next January 1.” They look up the relevant provisions and write you a bill that says what you want the law to become – essentially,
Obviously, you will need the support of the Chairman of the Banking Committee, etc., as outlined by others above.
I have no idea if Congress has such an agency, but I would not be at all surprised to find they do.
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