The Legislative Process (Part II)

Previously, I discussed the legislative process (actually, I summarized the Appropriations process). To recap and simplify the legislative process:

1. A bill or resolution is introduced on the floor of the House or Senate.
2. The legislation is then referred to an appropriate committee.
3. The committee will consider the legislation at the subcommittee level. Most bills introduced will "die" here. Once legislation is introduced, Congress (the legislative body) has until the end of that Congress (the legislative session) to take action on it. Each Congress is made up of a 1st and 2nd session -- we are currently in the 2nd session of the 110th Congress.

Each stage of this process is its own challenge -- in order to get a bill introduced, you have to have a "Champion". A Champion is a Member or Members of Congress who are willing to be your legislative agents. Unless you are an attorney or trained individual well versed in legislative drafting or maintain your own legislative counsel, your Champion would author the bill. Your Champion would then introduce the bill on the floor of the House or Senate.

Once legislation has been introduced, the process of added public support to the bill must be tackled. This is done by adding "co-sponsors" on a bill. The Member or Members who introduced the bill are called "original sponsors" and the original sponsor of a bill has the priveledge of adding co-sponsors. The more co-sponsors who support a bill increases the likelihood that the bill will be considered at the committee level and likewise on the floor of the House and the Senate.

This is probably a good place to stop and move on other things like activism and advocacy and some of the issues that are out there.