Democratic or Undemocratic - Essay Example

The Process by Which a Bill is Passed by the U.S. Congress: A Detailed Review 2007 The Process by Which a Bill is Passed by the U.S. Congress: A Detailed Review The process that takes place when a bill is passed by the United States Congress is one of great complexity and importance. There are many different issues that need to be discussed in order to be able to better understand this process, and this particularly includes the matter of the role of committees. The aim of this paper is to not only thoroughly address and examine this process, but as well include any and all other key and related issues in regards to this matter.

By doing this, we will be able to attain a more informed and knowledgeable understanding on the actually process by which a bill is passed by the U.S. Congress and as well get a better idea as to what takes place within the Congress as well. This is what will be dissertated in the following. Basically the United States has three different branches of government, which are: legislative, executive, and judicial. Each of these different branches has its own features and works in its own separate way.

Laws are able to evolve from the action of each branch however, and a legislative history will basically and generally trace its bill from its introduction into Congress through the legislative process. The conference committee is a committee of Congress which is considered as being incredibly major in the process of a bill being passed; the committee is appointed by the House of Representatives and Senate to resolve any disagreements on any particular bill. The first thing that happens when a bill is going to be passed has to do with these conference committees, and they only operate "after the House and the Senate have both passed different versions of a bill.

Bills must be printed. Conference committees exist to negotiate a compromise bill that both houses can accept." (45). Then, both houses of Congress must end up eventually passing the identical legislation in order for the bill to become a law, thus proving their extreme importance in this process overall. One factor that is incredibly important to know is that of how "After one house passes a bill, the second house will often pass the same bill, with an amendment representing the second house's work product.

The second house will then send a message between houses to the first house, asking the first house to concur with the second house's amendment. If the first house does not like the second house's amendment, then the first house can disagree with the amendment of the second house, request a conference, appoint conferees, and send a message to that effect to the second house. The second house then insists on its amendment, agrees to a conference, and appoints conferees." (101). From this review we can see that the process by which a bill is passed in the U.S. Congress is one of great complexity, and as well we have been able to see just how important the role of conference committees are to this process in general.

They are without a doubt one of the most key elements of all to this process, and without them no bills would able to be passed. From this we have truly been able to attain a much more informed and knowledgeable understanding on the process in question.References Wilson, J. Q (2007). American Government, Brief Version, 8th Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.