How do laws really get made?
Some people have compared the making of laws to the making of sausage. It is a messy process that calls for mixing together many ingredients-some rather unpleasant-and stuffing them into one package. Some diagrams can explain the lawmaking process in a straightforward manner. However, because lawmaking is so complex and chaotic in real life, any diagram of this process is far too neat, as one former member of the House of Representatives made clear:
You don’t just have an idea, draft it in bill form, and drop it in the House hopper or file it at the Senate desk. Developing the idea is very much a political process-listening to the needs and desires of people and then trying to translate that into a specific legislative proposal.
Once a bill is introduced in the House or Senate, the business of lawmaking begins. In theory, a proposed law first goes to a committee. If approved there, the bill goes to the floor of the chamber in which it was introduced for a vote. If it passes there, it goes to the other chamber of Congress for a second vote. After being approved by both the House and Senate, the bill goes to the president.
In reality, as Representative Hamilton observed, the legislative process is far more complex and filled with hazards. During the months it takes to move a bill through Congress, lawmakers can be pulled in several directions. Party leaders insist on loyalty to the party’s position. Constituents may demand attention to local concerns. Lobbyists may clamor for consideration of their particular interests. And all the while, the news media watch and report lawmakers’ every move.
In addition to these outside pressures, many lawmakers feel an inner pressure to make decisions based on their own principles. As one political scientist put it, “Members of Congress are inevitably caught in a crossfire of competing expectations.”