How does a bill become a law?

How does a bill become a law?

• (Involves some reading.) For my government class we need to write all the steps of how a bill becomes a law. Here's what I have so far (this is for a specific, imaginary bill): 1. have an idea 2. get sponsored by a Representative 3. put in hopper 4. House clerk assigns number, title, and a brief summary 5. entered in the House Journal and the Congressional Record for a day 6. bill is printed and distributed to Congress 7. Speaker of the House refers bill to appropriate standing committee 8. subcommittee has a hearing and releases bill back to committee 9. reports bill favorably 10. bill goes to the House Rule's Committee to set conditions for debate and amendments 11. bill is put on calendar 12. bill is debated on by full committee 13. majority and minority floor leaders decide how to split the bill 14. after the motion passes by majority there is 40 minutes of further debate 15. the votes are cast for each separate motion 16. bill passes by majority and is sent to the Senate 17. sent to a committee for review and discussion 18. changes are made to bill 19. Senate votes on bill 20. the bill is passed and sent back to House 21. the House votes on bill again and bill is sent to conference committee 22. the conference committee makes a compromise between the bill that the House passed and the one the Senate passed 23. both the House and the Senate pass identical bills 24. the enrolling clerk prepares final bill for president 25. the enrolled bill is printed and certified by Clerk of the House 26. bill is signed by Speaker of the House and President of the Senate 27. bill is sent to the President of the United States 28. President vetoes bill 29. bill is returned to the House with a veto message 30. Congress overrides veto by at least 2/3 vote My questions are: Is there another step at the end? Am I missing anything else? When do the first, second, and third reading come in? (Where and how do I put them in?) Anything else?? Thank you soo much. I know that's entailed a bit of reading and most people just skipped the question because of it.

• Answer:

  Bills can start in either house, senate or house of representatives. After each house passes the bill, then the conference committee gets together and irons out the differences between them. Then that conference bill goes back to each house and is voted on (unchanged). Once identical bills are passed in both houses, it's then presented to the president. Both houses of congress have to override the veto with 2/3 vote in each house. Often times in the senate, if any senator objects to the bill, they can filibuster it. If it is filibustered, then a cloture vote is needed in the senate which requires a 3/5 vote to end "debate" on it.