In the Constitution, three-quarters of the states, or 38 of the 50, must ratify the proposed amendment. For a federal law to pass, a simple majority of votes is required in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If published by the committee, the bill is placed on a schedule to be voted on, debated, or amended.
If the bill is passed by a simple majority (218 out of 43), the bill goes to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if published, is debated and voted on. Once again, a simple majority (51 out of 100) approves the bill. Finally, a conference committee comprised of members from the House of Representatives and the Senate resolves any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
The resulting bill returns to the House of Representatives and the Senate for final approval. The Government Publications Office prints the revised bill in a process called registration. The president has 10 days to sign or veto the registered bill. An official website of the United States government Official websites use.
gov A. The gov website belongs to an official government organization of the United States. Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government. Learn how a bill becomes law and how the process is different in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
A bill is a proposal for a new law or a change to an existing law. The idea for a bill can come from a sitting member of the United States Senate, Senate, or House of Representatives or be proposed during your election campaign. Bills can also be introduced by individuals or groups of citizens who recommend a new or amended law to a member of Congress who represents them. Once a bill is submitted, it is assigned to a committee whose members will investigate, discuss, and amend the bill. The bill is then submitted to that chamber for a vote.
If the bill is approved by one body of Congress, it goes to the other body to go through a similar process of research, discussion, changes and voting. Once both bodies vote to accept a bill, they must resolve any differences between the two versions. Then, both houses vote on the same version of the bill. If approved, they submit it to the president. The president then considers the bill. The president can approve the bill and sign it into law.
Or the president may refuse to pass a bill. If the president decides to veto a bill, in most cases Congress can vote to override that veto and the bill becomes law. But if the president doesn't approve a bill and it remains unsigned when Congress is no longer in session, the bill will be vetoed by default. This action is called a pocket veto and Congress cannot override it.
The Senate and the House have some procedural differences. While both work the same way, only the House of Representatives can initiate legislation related to taxes and revenues. And only the Senate can draft laws related to presidential nominations and treaties. While the House processes legislation through a majority of votes, the Senate does so through deliberation and debate before the vote.
Learn more about the legislative process with this video from Congress, the governor. Ask a real person any question related to the government for free. They will give you the answer or tell you where to find it. USAGov is the official guide to government information and services An official website of the United States, USA.
UU. Although an Article V convention based on a single topic, such as the amendment to the balanced budget, has been called for, it is not clear if a convention convened in this way would be legally required to limit the discussion to a single topic; law professor Michael Stokes Paulsen suggested that such a convention would have the power to propose what he considered appropriate, while law professor Michael Rapp Paport and lawyer Robert Kelly believe that a convention is possible. It protects equally against that extreme ease that would make the Constitution too changeable; and against that extreme difficulty that could perpetuate its discovered defects. In addition, it allows both the General Government and the Government of the States to cause the modification of errors, as demonstrated by experience, on the one hand, or by the another one.
Similarly, at the 1787 Convention, problems arose after two of the New York delegates withdrew in protest, as the New York state legislature had created a rule requiring two delegates to agree to vote on behalf of the state. As the legislature decided not to send new delegates, Alexander Hamilton accepted state authority and was unable to vote for the rest of the convention. This is the fundamental difference between a delegate to a convention, to carry out the orders of their constituents, and a representative before a legislature, to replace their constituents and make decisions based on their own deliberations. Due to the doctrine of the political question and the Court's ruling in the Coleman v.
case of 1939The Founding Fathers now had to get states to accept the document and vote in favor of it. Nine states had to vote in favor of the Constitution for it to be accepted. Each state was given six months to meet and vote on the proposed Constitution. On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to vote for or ratify it.
New Hampshire became the ninth state to accept the Constitution on June 21, 1788, which officially ended government under the Articles of Confederation. It wasn't until the last state, Rhode Island, finally ratified the Constitution. The Congress of the Confederation agreed and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 began the process that ended the era of the Articles of Confederation. The articles required unanimous consent for any amendment, so all 13 states would have to agree on a change.
While the articles technically prohibited states from holding any “conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty with a foreign government,” states could carry out their own foreign policies. On that day in 1781, the Articles of Confederation, the first American constitution, became the country's official law. Federalists considered this to be a major flaw in the articles, as it created an almost insurmountable obstacle for constitutional reform.
