The Lawmaking Process

Turning a bill into a law usually involves several stages: a member of Congress introduces the bill, a committee reviews and can amend or block it, the full chamber debates and votes on it, and, since a bill must pass the House and Senate in identical form, any differences between the two chambers' own versions must be reconciled before the bill goes to the President, who can sign it into law, veto it, or simply do nothing: after 10 days (not counting Sundays), the bill becomes law without a signature, unless Congress's own adjournment during that window actually prevents the bill from being returned to it, in which case the bill typically dies instead, an outcome called a pocket veto. Most bills introduced in Congress never make it through all of these stages to actually become law.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report