U.S. law-making and implementation - Essay Example

However, the process of law making is not as easy as it appears since it involves lengthy processes, as well as political involvement, which makes law making and implementation very complex. Law making starts with only one member making a proposal based on legislation idea from outside or inside the congress. Members of the congress receive drafts from academics, the state legislature, interest groups, executive branch departments, the president, and the federal agencies. When members like the concept that is in the draft, they will introduce it as their own idea or they can distance themselves from it and introduce it by request.

This means that they introduce the bill just because of professional courtesy and not because they embrace the ideas in the proposal. A legislative proposal made by the president is given advance publicity or he announces it formally when giving a speech in a state of the union or when giving a press conference. An example is president Obama’s proposal on Gun control and the 2010 act on healthcare. However, a proposal emanating from the president does not have privileges of passing into a law automatically; it must pass through the process as any other bill.

Politics from both sides of the government have a great influence on the passing of a bill. Although, for the case of the president, he can rely on his party for support, there is still a great challenge because the other party might fail to support the bill (U.S. G.P.O. 3). Furthermore, the checks and balances of American traditional law making process limit the president’s powers by not allowing him to pass his own legal proposal into law without hustle. Hence, for the bill to pass, he must lobby ferociously just as the other legislative advocates do to protect and respect the independence of the American legislature from the executives.

For instance, the legislative proposal on gun control by