HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW
by USHistory.org2016
Creating new laws is what the United States Congress is all about. However, many people criticize Congress for its inefficiency and the length of time that it takes for laws to be passed and enacted. For example, members of the 112th Congress (2011-2012) introduced 6,845 bills, but only 758 were passed. That’s 5%!
The process of creating laws is long and difficult, but our nation’s founders intentionally set it up that way. Our founders didn’t want a process where just a few people would have the power to quickly be able to make all the laws. Instead, they created many hurdles so that many people would have to agree on a law before it could be passed.
Before a bill becomes a law it must pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law by the president. It may begin its journey at any time, but it must be passed during the same Congressional session of its proposal (a period of one year).
The two chambers of the United States Congress are called the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House has 435 members, and states with larger populations get a larger share of the representatives. States with relatively few people, like Vermont and Wyoming, each get only 1 representative, but Texas gets 36 representatives and California gets 53. The Senate is different. Each state — no matter how big or small it is — gets 2 Senators.
For any bill to pass the House or the Senate, a few very important things must happen. First, the bill must pass through the relevant committee. For example, if there is a bill on farm subsidies,1 the bill is sent to the Agriculture Committee. In this committee, members can recommend changes, and the details of the bill can be edited. Once edits are finished, members of that committee vote to determine whether or not to send the bill to the floor for a vote. Roughly 90% of bills never actually make it out of their committee.
If a majority of members support the bill in committee, then it is moved to the floor where there is a debate and a vote. Since the House has many more members, the debates are timed and members usually have just a few minutes to speak in favor of or in opposition to the bill. The Senate is different and much more complicated; Senators can debate an issue for a far longer amount of time. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was debated for 60 days since some Senators didn’t believe that bill should become a law. After the debates end, a vote is held, and majority rules.
If a bill passes both the House and the Senate with a majority vote, the bill is then sent to a conference committee. A conference committee is formed to merge two versions of a bill — one from the House and one from the Senate — when the two houses cannot easily agree on revisions. The members of the conference committee must come up with a compromise. The revised bill then must go back to the floors of each house and be passed by both houses before it can be sent to the president.
If the president agrees with the bill, he or she can sign it, and then it becomes a law. If the president disagrees with the bill, he or she can veto it. At that point, Congress can override the president’s veto if two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate vote to overturn the veto.
As you can see, it is very hard to pass laws in America, but this can also help protect us from leaders who have bad ideas. Winston Churchill, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” When he said this, he may have been thinking about America’s government!
1. What is the central idea of this text
A. Bills become laws once Congress has reviewed them.
B. Bills become laws after approval by either house or Senate
C. Bills become laws only after receiving several reviews and approvals.
D. Bills often do not become laws because they receive a presidential veto
2. What is the meaning of "share" as it is used in paragraph 4?
A. Portion
B. Quality
C. Space
D. Variety
Please help me I have Gifted Common lit and I'm also Dyslexic, it gets really hard reading words and I often skip words causing me to fail. Thankyou! :)