How A Bill Becomes A Law
Am. Gov.
1. How does an idea for a bill start, and what happens before its first reading?
2. What is the role of the committee and what are the different ways they can report a bill?
For The House:
The house's committees consider bills and issues and oversee agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions. There is many different committees, examples are: agriculture, budget, education and work force, foreign affairs, small business. Every time a bill is to be considered, it has to start in one of the many committees.
For The Senate:
The senate divides its tasks among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and 4 joint committees. The Senate committee system is similar to the House committee but the Senate committee adopts its own rules which creates many differences among the panels.
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Until a report is filed, the bill can go no further. If the bill has been reported by multiple committees, then the printed version can have different type fonts to be able to tell the difference between each committee's amendments.
3. What is debate on the Floor and how does that differ between the House of Representatives and the Senate?
The difference between floor debate in the House and in the Senate is that floor debate is strictly limited in the House, but almost unrestrained in the Senate.