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Legislative Process

A bill proposing a new law or a change to an existing law may be introduced in either the Senate or the House of Representatives. The bill is assigned a number, i.e., Senate Bill 5817 or House Bill 2131, and is then assigned to a committee in which it is scheduled for a public hearing by the chair of the committee. The chair has total control over this process. If there is no public hearing scheduled, the bill dies.

After a public hearing, if one occurs, a vote is taken in the committee to decide if it will receive a “do pass” recommendation from the committee members and, if so, it is then sent to the Rules committee. It must be “pulled” by a member of that committee in order to reach the floor of that legislative body before it can receive a vote.

If the bill is passed by one of the legislative bodies, it is then sent to the other legislative body where the process repeats itself – it is assigned to a committee, has a public hearing, if voted upon and receives a “do pass” recommendation, is sent to the Rules committee, is “pulled” to the floor and receives a vote.

During this process, various amendments may be offered to the bill which are either accepted or rejected. When the final bill passes with the concurrence of both legislative bodies it is sent to the Governor for signature. It then becomes law 90 days after the date of the end of the legislative session unless the bill contains some earlier effective date.

The legislature has set certain dates, called cut-off dates, by which each of the steps must occur during the session and the bills that have not reached those steps by that time die.

To be effective in supporting legislation, it is necessary to follow the bill through the entire process contacting legislators along the way to urge that the bill move to the next step. This requires some effort because the sponsors of the bill must be identified and contacted to urge their continued support, the members of each of the committees to which it is assigned or moving through must be contacted, and then all the legislators must be contacted when you want to urge the passage in that particular legislative body. You will be most effective when you convince the legislators elected in your district to support the bill and convince your friends and acquaintances to do the same for those in their districts.