How a Bill Becomes Law

The steps a bill takes

1. Someone introduces it

   Any member of the House or the Senate can introduce a bill, and it gets a number — H.R. 1 in the House, S. 1 in the Senate. Introducing a bill costs nothing and promises nothing: it is not a sign of support, momentum or any chance of passing.

2. A committee takes it, and usually keeps it

   Within days it is sent to one or more committees that cover its subject. A committee can hold hearings, rewrite the bill and vote to send it to the full chamber. Most bills never get that far: a committee that does nothing kills a bill without anyone voting against it.

3. It waits for the floor

   A bill the committee approves goes onto the chamber's list of business, which is a queue, not a date. The majority party's leaders decide what comes up and when. In the House, many bills come up on a fast track that allows no changes and needs two-thirds to pass. In the Senate, most bills need 60 votes to end debate before the final vote can happen at all.

4. The other chamber does it all again

   A bill that passes one chamber goes to the other and starts over: a committee, the queue, a vote. Both chambers must pass exactly the same words. If they pass different versions, one chamber accepts the other's changes, or the two negotiate a single version that both then pass.

5. The President signs it, or refuses

   The President has ten days, not counting Sundays, to sign it or send it back with objections. A bill the President does neither with becomes law anyway — unless Congress has adjourned in those ten days, in which case it dies. Congress can pass a bill over the President's refusal with two-thirds of both chambers, which rarely happens.

6. Or it runs out of time

   A Congress lasts two years. When it ends, every bill that has not become law dies with it — whatever stage it reached. To try again, someone has to introduce it as a new bill and start from the beginning.

Where they stand now

Every bill and joint resolution this Congress, by the furthest point it has reached. What happens next is the part a status word never says.

• Became law

  136 · 0.8%

  Passed both chambers and was signed by the President, or became law without a signature.

  Nothing more in Congress: it is law. When it takes effect depends on the dates written into it — some parts start at once, others a year or more later.

  The newest laws

• On the President's desk

  2 · under 0.1%

  Passed both chambers in the same form and has been sent to the President.

  The President has ten days, not counting Sundays, to sign it or send it back. Doing nothing lets it become law — unless Congress adjourns in that time, in which case doing nothing kills it.

  Bills still moving

• Passed both chambers, not yet sent to the President

  21 · 0.1%

  Both the House and the Senate have passed it, though not necessarily the same text.

  If the two chambers passed identical wording, the final copy is being prepared for the President. If they did not, one chamber must accept the other's version or the two negotiate a single one — nothing goes to the President until the text is identical.

  Bills still moving

• Waiting for a floor vote in the other chamber

  91 · 0.5%

  Passed one chamber and is on the other chamber's calendar.

  The calendar is a queue, not a date. The majority leadership decides what comes to the floor and when; much of what is placed on it is never called, and a bill that is never called simply expires with the Congress.

• In the other chamber's committee

  496 · 2.9%

  Passed one chamber and has been handed to a committee in the other.

  The committee decides whether it goes any further, and most bills that reach a committee never leave it. A committee that simply does nothing kills a bill without anyone ever voting against it, so no news from here is usually the news.

• Passed one chamber, waiting for the other to take it up

  233 · 1.4%

  Passed one chamber, and the other has not yet sent it to a committee or put it on its calendar.

  The other chamber will hand it to a committee, place it on its calendar, or leave it where it is. Nothing has been decided, and a bill can sit here indefinitely.

• Cleared committee, waiting for its first floor vote

  589 · 3.5%

  A committee approved it and it is on the calendar of the chamber it started in.

  This is further than most bills get, and still no promise of a vote: the calendar is a queue, and the majority leadership decides what is called. A bill can sit here until the Congress ends.

• In committee

  14,847 · 88%

  Introduced and handed to a committee in the chamber it started in.

  The committee holds it, and most bills are never heard from again. A hearing or a committee vote would be news; silence is the usual outcome, and it kills the bill without anyone voting against it.

  The newest bills

• Introduced, nothing more yet

  531 · 3.1%

  Formally proposed, and not yet handed to a committee.

  Nearly every bill is sent to a committee within days. Introduction alone is not a sign of support, of momentum, or of any likelihood of passing — any member may introduce any bill.

• Failed

  11 · under 0.1%

  Came to a vote and did not get the votes it needed.

  Usually nothing. A measure can be brought back, but one that failed on the floor rarely returns in the same Congress.

• Vetoed

  2 · under 0.1%

  The President refused to sign it and sent it back to Congress.

  Congress can pass it anyway with two-thirds of both chambers. That almost never happens, so a vetoed bill is nearly always finished.

By subject

The same steps for each subject Congress files its bills under. A subject with many bills and few laws is a subject members propose a lot about, not necessarily one Congress is ignoring.

Resolutions are counted apart

Reading these numbers

• A bill that dies can still become law in part. Congress often folds the text of smaller bills into a large one — a yearly spending bill, a defence bill — and passes that instead. The small bill is then counted here as stuck in committee, though what it said is law. These numbers count bills, not ideas.

• A count is not a grade. Fewer laws can mean a divided Congress, or a careful one; more can mean real work, or many small ones such as renaming a post office. The numbers say how many, and what any one bill does is on its own page.

• Where each number comes from. Each bill's stage is read from its own history as Congress publishes it, and the counts come from the site's copy of that record, which updates through the day. How the site gathers and checks the record is on How we make this; every word used here is in the glossary.