- [Instructor] What we're going to do in this video
is diagram out how a bill can become a law.
And I make a distinction between a non-tax bill
and a tax bill because a non-tax bill
can be introduced into either chamber of Congress initially.
It can be introduced into the Senate
or it can be introduced into the
House of Representatives.
While something that deals with taxation
can only be introduced initially
into the House of Representatives.
And as we've talked about in other videos,
anyone can be involved in the drafting of a bill
but it actually needs to be introduced into
the appropriate chamber by a member of that chamber.
But let's say that it gets introduced into the Senate,
what happens then?
Well it will be referred to the appropriate committee
and what is the appropriate committee?
Well if it deals with foreign relations
it would go to the Foreign Relations Committee.
If it deals with the Armed Services,
well it would go to the Armed Services Committee.
You get the general idea.
Now in the committee they might have hearings,
they might debate it
and if they decide to debate it
and have a vote on it,
it could pass.
So lets say it passes through the committee,
and then the majority leader,
and the majority leader is the
leader of the majority party in the Senate.
They have a lot of influence on how
and when that bills gets debated on the Senate floor.
But lets say they schedule it for debate
on the Senate floor.
Once things get to a vote on the Senate floor
they need a simple majority to pass.
So lets say that this bill passes
and I know what you're thinking.
You might have heard numbers like
60 out of 100 votes or 2/3 majority.
Where the 2/3 is necessary to ratify a treaty,
the 60 votes that's necessary for cloture,
to end most filibusters.
And so functionally it often does require
more than a simple majority support
in order to get even to a vote.
But lets say that this bill,
that was initially introduced into the Senate
makes it all the way through.
What happens then?
Well if there isn't a similar bill
that was introduced into the House of Representatives
and got through the House of Representatives
this bill would then go through
a similar process in the House.
So then this bill would go all the way,
it would be introduced into the House of Representatives.
It would be referred to the appropriate committee
and then once it passes through the appropriate committee
it would go through the Rules Committee.
And the Rules Committee is one of these major
distinctions between the House and the Senate.
The Senate does have a Rules Committee
but it is nowhere near as powerful.
In the House the Rules Committee can control a lot.
It can decide when and how
or even whether a bill even gets to the floor.
But lets say that it does get to the floor
and then it gets a simple majority
of the House members to vote for it.
Well then this bill would then go to the President.
Now some interesting things happen
once it gets to the President.
The President can of course decide sign the bill.
So then sign the bill,
in which case that bill will become law.
The President could also decide to veto the bill.
Now if the President vetoes the bill,
it would go back to the chamber in which it originated.
In this first example that we're talking about
that vetoed bill would go back to the Senate.
And in order to override the veto
they would need a 2/3 majority.
And even if they where able to get the 2/3 right over here,
it's still wouldn't become a law.
Then it would have to get the 2/3 in the House.
But if it was able to get the 2/3 there as well,
well then they have overwritten the President's veto
and it will become a law.
Now there's other edge cases that involve the President.
If a President does nothing for 10 days,
and if Congress is in session for those 10 days,
well then it can become a law.
So nothing for 10 days,
well then you can also make it a law.
And there's also called a pocket veto,
where the President does nothing
but the Congress goes out of session
within that 10 days.
And so let me do this.
This would be a pocket veto right over here
and I'll just put that in quotes
because that's also the President doing nothing
but Congress goes out of session within those 10 days.
Now one thing to be clear,
even what I've drawn here is a simplification.
There many steps in this process
where bill could change,
where a bill could die
or a bill could just go into some sort of a limbo state.
For example, a committee can decide to add to a bill
that would be called amending a bill.
So that could happen over there.
That can actually happen other places.
Maybe a bill does not pass through committee.
Not pass.
Maybe it does not pass through the floor action.
Maybe it doesn't pass the House Committee.
Maybe it doesn't pass through the House.
All of these places are where a bill could die.
There's also situations where a committee
could decide to table a bill.
Which is not saying that we have voted against it
but they're saying hey we're not even going to vote on it
and it just goes into a little bit of limbo
but essentially the bill will die there.
So it could get tabled in committee in either chamber.
Even the Rules Committee could decide to table it.
So it'd never really makes its way to a vote on the floor.
Now it's also important to note
that in the example we gave,
a bill started in the Senate.
Made it's way through the Senate
and then had to make it's way through the House
and eventually got to the President's desk.
It could have gone the other way.
It could have started in the House of Representatives.
In fact if it's a tax bill it would have had to start
in the House of Representatives
and if it got all the way through the House
then it would have gone into the Senate.
It would have to go all the way through the Senate
and then it would end up on the President's desk.
And often times you have a situation
where two parallel bills are making their way
through each chamber.
So there could be a bill that's making it's way
through the Senate on say immigration
and there could be a parallel bill on immigration
making it's way through the House of Representatives.
Now if each of those bills
get through their respective chambers,
then they go to something called a conference committee.
Which is a place where both Representatives
and Senators of the appropriate committees
will get together and make their bills gel together.
Now even if they're able to agree
to a unified bill so to speak,
one that syncs the two bills that went through both chambers
then that synced bill would once again have to go through
both chambers again.
So its' not like the conference committee can just decide.
And even what I've drawn here is a simplification.
There's all of this,
whether you consider it interesting or not,
parliamentary procedure and nuances
that allow different players
especially the leadership in each of the houses
to have a lot of levers to either
accelerate the passage of a bill
or to kill it in different ways.