What are some obstacles a proposed law must overcome for it ever to be enacted?

Yonsoo Park: What are some obstacles a proposed law must overcome for it ever to be enacted?
Although many ideas for laws are proposed to Congress every year, very few ever become laws. What are some obstacles a proposed law must overcome for it ever to be enacted. Please HELP!!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Major Arcana
Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and obligations related to the transfer and title of personal (often referred to as chattel) and real property. Trust law applies to assets held for investment and financial security, while tort law allows claims for compensation if a person’s rights or property are harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a statute, criminal law offers means by which the state can prosecute the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for the creation of law, the protection of human rights and the election of political representatives. Administrative law is used to review the decisions of government agencies, while international law governs affairs between Sovereign States in activities ranging from trade to environmental regulation or military action. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared, “The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual.”

Legal systems elaborate rights and responsibilities in a variety of ways. A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions, which codify their laws, and common law systems, where judge made law is not consolidated. In some countries, religion informs the law. Law provides a rich source of scholarly inquiry, into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis or sociology. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness and justice. “In its majestic equality”, said the author Anatole France in 1894, “the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.” In a typical democracy, the central institutions for interpreting and creating law are the three main branches of government, namely an impartial judiciary, a democratic legislature, and an accountable executive. To implement and enforce the law and provide services to the public, a government’s bureaucracy, the military and police are vital. While all these organs of the state are creatures created and bound by law, an independent legal profession and a vibrant civil society inform and support their progress.

Answer by mrjonessr41
Before a Law can be passes you have to be absolutely sure it helps no one in the bottom 98% or the Republicans will block it.

Answer by Tmess2
Generally speaking, there are several steps that an idea must take before it becomes a law.

First, a Representative or Senator must first be willing to take that idea and turn it into a bill (the formal name for a piece of legislation). It doesn’t matter who outside of Congress (including the President) supports the idea, If nobody in Congress is willing to file it, it doesn’t become law.

Second, once filed, a bill typically goes through two readings. In theory, any member of the House or Senate could require the full text to be read, but formal reading is normally waived. After the second reading, it is assigned to a committee. Which committee receives a bill is based on the topic of the bill. Some bills have to go to multiple committees.

Third, once assigned to a committee, the committee schedules a hearing on the bill at a date and time chosen by the chairperson of the committee. Typically, this part of the process is where most bills die. If the Chair opposes the bill, the bill may never get a hearing which is the case for the majority of the bills filed each session.

Fourth, after the hearing, there is a process typically called “mark-up” in which the committee considers the provisions in the bill, and make changes to the bill. After the mark-up of the bill is complete, the committee decides whether to approve the bill.

Fifth, if the bill is in the House, the bill then goes to the Rules Committee. Under the standing rules of the House, the formal rule for each bill (how much time for debate, what amendments will be considered) are decided by the Rules Committee. As with the original committee, the Chair of the Rules Committee can simply sit on a bill which he or she opposes. While there are procedures for the majority of the House to force a bill out of committee, those procedures are rarely invoked.

Sixth, the bill then goes to the floor. The leader of the majority party decides (for the most part) when a bill will receive consideration on the floor. For bills in the House, the first step for floor consideration is approval by the House of the rule governing that bill. If the rule fails, the bill goes back to the Rules Committee. For bills in the Senate, the majority must vote to begin debate on the bill. Any “rules” on a bill in the Senate must be agreed to by unanimous consent.

Seventh, the bill is then subject to debate and amendments on the floor of the House/Senate. Sometimes these amendments are mostly friendly (trying to fix a potential problem in the bill or at least something somebody sees as a potential problem that could cause the bill to be defeated). At other times, the amendment is very unfriendly (trying to remove an essential provision or trying to add a provision that supporters of the bill do not like — e.g. adding a provision eliminating a tax deduction to a bill proposing a new tax deduction).

Eighth, after all amendments have been decided, the bill is read for a third time (again formal reading is normally waived) and there is a vote on passage. If it passes, the bill goes to the other house and the process starts in that house.

If both houses pass the same exact language, it then goes to the President. If the language is not the same, the house that originally passed the bill must decide whether or not to accept the changes or to request a conference committee (a committee composed of an equal number of Senators and Representatives to resolve the differences between the two versions). If the first house requests a conference, the second house then has to decide whether to go back to the version passed by that first house or to agree to the conference. Assuming that there is a conference committee, both houses then have to vote to accept the compromise drafted by the conference committee or send it back to a new conference committee.

In the Senate, there is the additional problem that the Senate rule permits unlimited debate. If any Senator objects to ending the debate at any stage on the Senate floor, a cloture motion must be filed to end debate. It takes sixty votes (out of 100 Senators) in favor of cloture for debate to be ended. Thus, cloture can be required for the initial motion ot consider a bill, for amendments to the bill, for passage of the bill, for agreeing to a conference on the bill, and for final passage of the conference committee’s version of the bill.

Assuming that a bill gets through all of the above steps, it then goes to the President. If the President signs it, it is enacted. If the President vetoes the bill, it goes back to Congress where it takes a two-thirds vote in favor of the bill in each house to override the veto for the bill to be enacted.