American Government › Section K · Congress › Topic K.5
The legislative process
Thousands of bills are introduced in each Congress, and only a few percent become law. The route from idea to statute has many points where a bill can stall, and in recent decades Congress has increasingly found ways around the textbook path.
In this topic
- Introduction and referral
- The committee stage
- The House floor
- The Senate floor and the filibuster
- Worked example: counting to cloture
- Making the two versions match
- The president's choice
- Budgets, reconciliation and shutdowns
- Unorthodox lawmaking
- Worked example: tracing one bill
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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