How a Bill Becomes a Law

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Friday, February 14, 2014

The 2014 legislative session recently reached its halfway point. Bills passed by the Indiana State Senate will now be considered in the Indiana House of Representatives while the Senate will take up bills passed by the House. In the first half of session, the Senate passed bills to make Indiana a better place to live, work and raise a family.

With that in mind, we thought it’d be helpful to explain the legislative process and show how a bill becomes a law.

Step One: Each lawmaker who wishes to introduce legislation must submit their bills to the Office of Bill Drafting and Research on or before the bill filing deadline. This date changes each session but is typically at the end of the first week of session.

Step Two: Bills are first introduced in their house of origin, where they are read by the majority leader of the respective house. The bill is either assigned to one of the 45 standing committees (21 Senate committees and 24 House committees.) In some cases, the majority leader can choose not to send a bill to a committee by executive action.

Step Three: Once in committee, the chairperson can decide against scheduling the bill for a hearing, in which case it dies. In most cases, bills advance to a public hearing where the merits of the bill are discussed. Any member of the public can speak for or against the bill during this committee reading.

When discussion concludes, the bill is voted on for passage to a second reading or is tabled for further discussion. If tabled, the bill may or may not be reconsidered by a committee. If it is not reconsidered, it dies.

Step Four: The next stage in the process is known as the second reading. In this step, amendments can be made by any member of the house of origin, which are approved or denied by a majority vote of that house.

After that, the entire house of origin holds a vote on the bill. In the Senate, it takes 26 “yes” votes to pass, and 51 “yes” votes in the House of Representatives.

At this point, the bill either dies by failing to attain a majority vote or passes to a third reading.

Step Five: When all amendments have been made, the bill is considered in its final form and voted on by the house of origin. The bill either passes with a majority vote or dies.

If the bill passes, it is sent either to the House of Representatives, if the bill was drafted in the Senate, or the Senate, if drafted in the House.

Step Six: The process is then repeated in the second house of consideration.

If any amendments are made to the bill by a member outside of the house of origin, the originating house must agree to these changes. If they do not, the bill goes to a conference committee – comprising two members from each house with the goal of reaching an agreeable version of the bill. All four members must come to an agreement and present the bill to each house to vote on the changes made in the committee.

Step Seven: If both houses agree, the bill goes to the governor for his or her signature or a veto, which can be overridden by a majority vote in the House and Senate. If the bill sits without action for seven days after its passage, it automatically becomes law. But of course, bills most often become law with a signature from the governor.

We hope this helped you better understand Indiana’s legislative process. To stay up to date on bills as they go through the Indiana General Assembly, click here.