Getting Down To Basics with

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! The Congress has multiple bills introduced to them yearly. The fact that these bills have a detrimental impact requires to know more about them. 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. In the House of Representatives which tend to be the lower chamber of the US congress, members here are elected every two years. In this case the number of representatives in each state is however determined by the population level but each state is guaranteed to have at least one representative regardless of its population size. The Senate which is the upper chamber have its members elected every six years. The state population cannot change this.

The lawmaking process. There tend to be a legal process of drafting new laws and begins when a member of Congress introduces a bill. 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. Approving or rejecting the bill are the options here. The law goes on the next process after approval. Approved bills go to the full chamber now where members of the congress debate and vote on it. It then goes to the President. 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. Senators delay the voting of a bill by speaking about it for more 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. Its unlikely that filibuster will change in the future despite there being considerable debates about it.

Next is conference committees. It helps resolve differences between the Senate and the House. There are differences resolved by this committee which emanates from the two houses passing different versions of a bill. Significant changes or new provisions are made in this case. 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.

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