All 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. One can learn about the below five facts from this website to give an insight about the legislative system info.
Legislative branch has two houses. The first one is the House of Representatives and the second one is the Senate. Such split was brought about by the Great Compromise of 1787 that attempted to resolve issues of representation for states with large population vs. those states having smaller ones. 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.
Next is lawmaking process. A legal process is followed regarding new laws drafting. A law proposed by a member of either Houses tend to be a bill. 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. Rejecting it means it will not go further. The members of the Congress debate and vote on it after approval. 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.
Another one is 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. It helps resolve differences between the Senate and the House. Having a different version of a bill being passed by the two houses causes differences which this company comes to solve. The committee therefore makes significant changes to the bill or negotiates new provisions. The new bill after completion is then voted and later proceeds to the President.
Presidential veto. Although presidents are very powerful they however do not have the ability to make new laws without working with the Congress. It means that there is following of a certain procedure where the President have ten days to sign, veto or ignore this bill.