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Patricia Moore

2/28/21

Mr. Clark

Government and economics

The process of law-making in the United States.

Introduction, how do laws come to be?:

In order to know how we individuals in the United States of America can change and influence

the law, we need to know how laws come to be. Before any law becomes a law it must be written

as a bill, most bills when it comes to federal laws in the US are written and drafted by a member

of the congress, the ideas for the bill could have come straight from the congress members or

could have come from individuals or advocacy groups who sought a congress member for

representation.

The sponsor or the person who wrote and revised the bill will affect how the bill will be

introduced and discussed, either to the house or senate depending on the representation behind

the bill.

After being introduced the bill goes to a committee for review, these committees are usually

made up of members of congress with some knowledge or a specialty in the topic the bill covers,

so while reviewing the bill, potentially rewriting it, or going into the next step as much thought

and time is put into it to make sure the bill if implemented it will be as close to perfect as

possible.
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This step in the bill to the law-making process has several more committee reviews and rewrites

in order to make any more changes necessary before moving to the next step.

The most time-consuming process when it comes to writing bills and making them into laws is

the reviewing process of the bill. Because even after all the reviewing, revisions, and rewriting

that has already taken place and there is still more to come before the bill gets to the president

and becomes a law. The last steps after the bill finally reaches the floor, are being voted on by the

full chamber, where debates may be held, changes might be made, or the bill could again be

rewritten. They can pass, change, or ignore the bill but if passed it goes to the next chamber, and

if an agreement is made and the bill is passed the last stop will be the president, and from there

they can pass or veto.

How can the average person advocate and make change?

The process for turning a bill into a law is a pretty long one, and it takes a lot of collaboration

among all of the branches of government. But how can the average person impact this aspect of

government? While the entire process for potentially making a law stays the same, the beginning

is a little different. The laws making processes are made the way it is to prevent corruption of

power, no one person or one side of the political spectrum can easily take over. Which is

amazing for most, but what about the people who want to help their city, county, state, or country

by making or passing bills that could potentially do good?

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The first step would be getting a group of people, and laying and working through as many

ideas as possible before approaching their elected official with their issues and concerns. In order

for the bill to be written and taken seriously it must be done by an elected official of your state or

city, this could be a difficult collaboration but there are many channels available for

communication with those government officials, most commonly emails. Most bills proposed by

someone came from an email asking for representation on an issue and took off from there.

After getting a congress member or a government elected official to write the bill it will go

through all the steps necessary to potenity become a law. But even as this process continues you

won't be left in the dust, you can stay informed on where the bill is in the process and how voting

and debates go because you still have the opportunity to be a co-sponsor of that bill. You or your

advocacy group won't have any voting power, but being able to stay informed on the changes

that can or will be made is an important step in the lawmaking process.

It's quite surprising how people can get involved in the american system, and the change and

good they can make. Some very important bills and laws have been made because of normal

people or advocacy groups who wanted to make a difference. These differences aren't always

about speed limits or town curfews either, many people and groups have made a lot of ground

breaking laws, for civil rights, medical treatments and charging, and pushing for funding and

support by the country. Many wonderful things have been pushed and created by normal people,

which is truly the gift of democracy.