Question

why is it easier to kill a bill than to pass a bill?

Answer 1

Before a bill becomes a law it must pass both houses of Congress and 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. If it does not complete the process, it is dropped, and can only be revived through reintroduction and going through the whole process again. Not surprisingly, less that 10% of proposed bills actually become laws.

There are many opportunities to kill a bill before it becomes law. In each house, a bill must survive three stages:

1. Committee consideration
2. FLOOR DEBATE
3. Conference committees

The process through which a bill becomes law occurs in several stages in both houses:

1. Introduction: Only a member of Congress may introduce a bill.
2. Referral To Committee: The leader of the house in which the bill was introduced then refers the bill to an appropriate committee or committees.
3. Committee Action: The committees can refer the bill to subcommittees for action, hearings, markup sessions, and votes. The committee can also kill the bill by doing nothing at all, a process known as Pigeonholing.
4. Referral To The Full Body: If a committee approves a bill, the bill is sent on to the full House or Senate.
5. Floor Debate And Vote: The full body debates the bill and then votes. The two houses differ significantly in how they handle debate.
6. Conference Committee: Often, the two houses produce different versions of a single bill. When this happens, both houses appoint members to a conference committee, which works to combine the versions. After the conference committee’s report, both houses must vote on the new bill.
7. The President: The president’s only official legislative duty is to sign or veto bills passed by Congress. If the president signs the bill, it becomes law. If the bill is vetoed, it goes back to Congress, which can override the veto with a two-thirds vote in both houses. Veto overrides are rare—it is extremely difficult to get two-thirds of each house of Congress to agree to override. Instead, presidential vetoes usually kill bills.