The bill process begins with a draft bill introduced in either the House or Senate. It is then assigned to a committee for review. The committee may hold hearings and amend the bill before voting to send it to their full chamber. If passed, it goes to the other chamber and may be amended before also being passed. If differences exist, a conference committee resolves them. The final bill then goes to the President to be signed into law, vetoed, or passed without signature.

2. Thousands of bills are introduced
every year but only few hundreds are
passed into law.
The following is a summary of how
the bill makes its way from draft to
being signed into law by the
president.

3. 1-Writting the bill
The person who writes the bill may be
a senator a representative a constituent

4. 2- Introducing the bill
The bill is introduced in the senate or the house and
it is assigned a number and its title and sponsors are
published in the congressional records

5. 3- Committees and Subcommittees
• The parliamentarians of the house and the
senate assigns the bill to the committee with
appropriate jurisdiction.
Bill

6. • The chair of the committee may then
assign the bill to the most appropriate
subcommittee.
Committee Subcommittee

7. 4- Subcommittee Hearings
The subcommittee hold hearings on the bill
and invite testimony from public and private
witnesses
Witnesses may be executive branch
officials, experts, interest groups, or
individuals.

8. 5- Mark-up The Bill
Once the hearings are completed, The subcommittee
may need to mark up the bill (the process of
proposing and considering amendments to the bill).
It then votes on whether to report the bill favourably
to the full committee. If not favourably reported, the
bill dies.

9. 6- send it back to full committee
The committee may repeat the subcommittee’s
action: hearings, mark up, votes.
if the committee voted
favourably on the bill , it
is ordered to be
reported to either
The full
house of The full
representat senate
ives
Note: depending on which chamber is considering the bill.

10. 7- debate
• When the bill reach the
floor of the house or
the senate the
membership of the
entire body may debate
it.
• At this point the bill
may be further
amended, referred back
to committee or voted
on.

11. 8- referring to other chamber
• If the bill is passed by the house or senate, it is
referred to the other chamber.
A house passed bill may be placed directly on the
senate calendar, by passing the subcommittee and
committee reviews

12. 9- House VS Senate
If the senate and the house had different visions
of the bill, a conference committee is appointed
by the president of the senate and the speaker
of the house to resolve the differences.
If they do reach an
agreement, the bill is sent
If the conference are unable
back to the both
to reach agreement, the
chambers, which must vote
legislation dies.
on the bill without further
amendments.

13. 10- president signature
If both chambers approve the conference committee
bill, it goes to the president for signature.
The president has 3
options:
1-Sign the bill into law.
2- Take no action, in which
case the bill become a law
within ten days.
3-Veto the bill.

14. • In case of the presidential veto:
The president
vetoed the
bill
Congress may
veto the
presidential
veto If the congress
If the congress
failed to achieve a
succeeded to get Note: This requires a two third majority
the two third
two third majority in favour of the
majority the bill
votes by both the legislation, this bill
will pass
house and the is killed.
senate.