Question

1. What Congressional barriers do legislation have to overcome before becoming law?

Answer 1

Creating legislation is all about Congress ' business. Ideas for laws come from ordinary citizens in many ways, the president, executive branch officials, state legislatures and governors, congressional staff, and Congress members themselves, of course. Before a bill becomes a statute, all Congress houses must be passed and the president signed into law. At any time, it can start its journey, but it must be approved during the same one-year legislative session of its resolution. If the system is not completed, it will be dropped and can only be resurrected by re-introduction and the entire process.

New bills are sent by subject to the standing committees. For example, farm subsidy bills normally go to the Committee on Agriculture. Bills seeking tax changes would go to the Committee on House Ways and Means. Because the bill volume is so large, most bills are sent directly to the subcommittee today. Most bills— about 90%— die in committee or subcommittee, where they are pigeonholed or just forgotten and never discussed. If a bill survives, hearings are set up in which different experts, officials from government or lobbyists present their views to committee members. The bill will be classified and updated after the hearings until the committee is ready to send it to the floor.

Most bills passing the first two stages do not have to go to the conference committee, but often do those that are contentious, especially important, or complex. A conference committee is created to combine two iterations of a bill— one from the House and one from the Senate— when there is no ready consensus between the two houses on changes. The members were drawn from the standing committees that sponsored the bill that reached a consensus. The updated bill must then go back to each house's floors and go through both houses before it can be sent for signature to the president.

Most people are critical of Congress for its inefficiency and the length of time it takes to formulate and enact laws. Although the process is long and challenging, it was set up intentionally by the founders. Some modern critics believe that for a fast-paced country like the United States, the system is arcane and simply too slow. It would definitely be more effective in a system where only a few individuals are responsible for making laws. But it wouldn't have been very egalitarian, of course. The many obstacles facing bills help ensure that survivors are not only passed on a whim, but are well thought and deliberate.