How a bill becomes a law 409C-SPAN, you know that often there are very few people on the floor during debates.
Typically only the small number of people who are most interested in the bill (usually
members of the committee that produced it) actively participate and offer amendments.
When debate is completed and all amendments have been considered, the presiding
officer calls for a voice vote, with those in favor saying “aye” and those opposed “no.” If it
is unclear which side has won, any member may call for a “division vote,” which requires
members on each side to stand and be counted. At that point, any member may call for a
recorded vote (there is no way of recording members’ positions on voice votes and division
votes). If at least 25 members agree that a recorded vote is desired, buzzers go off in the office
buildings and committee rooms, calling members to the floor for the vote. Once they reach
the floor, members vote by an electronic system in which they insert ATM-like cards into
slots and each vote is recorded on a big board at the front of the House or Senate chamber.
If the bill passes the House and the Senate in different forms, the discrepancies have
to be resolved. On many minor bills, one chamber may simply accept the other chamber’s
version to solve the problem. On other minor bills and some major bills, differences
are resolved through a process known as amendments between the chambers. In this
case, one chamber modifies a bill passed by the other chamber and sends it back. These
modifications can go back and forth several times before both houses agree on an identical
bill. A complicated version of this approach was used to pass health care reform in 2010.
The most common way to resolve differences on major legislation is through a
conference committee made up of key players in the House and the Senate. A majority
of major bills go to a conference committee, but minor bills rarely do.^42 Sometimes
the conferees split the difference between the House and Senate versions, but at other
times the House and Senate approaches are so different that one must be chosen—an
especially tricky prospect when different parties control the two chambers. Sometimes
the conference cannot resolve differences and the bill dies. If the conference
committee can agree on changes, each chamber must pass the final version, the
conference report, by a majority vote and neither chamber is allowed to amend it.
The bill is then sent to the president. If the president approves and signs the measure
within 10 days (not counting Sundays), it becomes law. If he or she objects to the bill, the
president may veto it within 10 days, sending it back to the chamber where it originated,
along with a statement of objections. Unless both the House and the Senate vote to
override the veto by a two-thirds majority, the bill dies. If the president does not act within
10 days and Congress is in session, the bill becomes law without the president’s approval.
If Congress is not in session, the measure dies through what is known as a pocket veto.
One final point on how a bill becomes a law is important: any bill that appropriates
money must pass through the two-step process of authorization and appropriation. In the
authorization process, members debate the merits of the bill, determine its language, and
limit the amount that can be spent on the bill. The appropriations process involves the
Budget Committees in both the House and the Senate, which set the overall guidelines
for the national budget, and the Appropriations Committees in the two chambers, which
determine the actual amounts of money that will be spent. In recent years, Congress has
been unable to pass its appropriations bills in time for the start of the new fiscal year, so it
ends up having to pass “continuing resolutions” that spend money at the last year’s levels
in order to keep the government open. Congress passed five continuing resolutions for
the 2018 fiscal year. That may sound like a lot, but the record is 21 for the 2001 fiscal year.^43Deviations from the Conventional Process
There are many ways in which legislation may not follow the typical path. First, in
some Congresses up to 20 percent of major bills bypass the committee system. This
may be done by a discharge petition, in which a majority of the members force a bill outveto
The president’s rejection of a bill that
has been passed by Congress. A veto
can be overridden by a two-thirds
vote in both the House and Senate.
pocket veto
The automatic death of a bill passed
by the House and Senate when the
president fails to sign the bill in the
last 10 days of a legislative session.Full_12_APT_64431_ch11_374-417.indd 409 16/11/18 10:30 AM