How a Bill Becomes a Law

What Is a Bill

A bill is a written proposal for a new federal law or a change to an existing one. Only a member of Congress can introduce one, though the idea can come from anyone. To become law, the House and Senate must pass the same text and the president must sign it, or Congress must override a veto.

Bills are numbered by chamber: H.R. for the House and S. for the Senate. A joint resolution (H.J.Res. or S.J.Res.) follows the same path and can also become law. Simple and concurrent resolutions cannot. They set chamber rules or state an opinion.

The 7 Steps From Bill to Law

1. Drafting

A bill begins as an idea. A member writes it with staff and the chamber’s nonpartisan legislative counsel, often at the urging of constituents, agencies, or advocacy groups.

2. Introduction

A member formally introduces the bill, which gets its number and is referred to one or more committees. Introduction guarantees nothing. It is the step every bill in the 16,000 reached.

3. Committee Review

Committee referral is where most bills die. The chair decides whether a bill gets a hearing, and most get none. If the chair moves it, members hold a markup, where they amend the text and vote on whether to send it to the full chamber.

A committee that never acts kills a bill without a vote. The Equality Act was introduced in June 2023, sent to House Judiciary, and never moved before that Congress ended (govinfo).

4. Floor Debate and Vote

In the House, leadership and the Rules Committee decide which bills reach the floor and under what terms, and a majority of those voting passes a bill. Leaders can also bring a bill up under suspension of the rules, which skips amendments but needs two-thirds. In the Senate, any senator can delay a vote until 60 senators vote to end debate, a step called cloture.

5. The Other Chamber

The bill starts over in the second chamber, from committee to floor. That chamber can pass it, change it, or ignore it. A bill that passes one chamber and stalls in the other dies when the two-year Congress ends.

6. Resolving Differences

Both chambers must pass identical text. They settle differences through a conference committee of members from both chambers, or by trading amendments until one chamber accepts the other’s version.

7. Presidential Action

The president has 10 days, Sundays excepted, to act. Signing makes the bill law. A veto sends it back to Congress with objections. If the president does nothing while Congress is in session, the bill becomes law unsigned. If Congress has adjourned, it dies by pocket veto, which Congress cannot override.

Real Bills at Each Step, 2025-2026

Each stage after drafting stopped or moved a real bill in the current Congress. Every card below names the bill and the dates from its official record.

Four Real Bills Across Six Steps

1. 1 April 29, 2025 Introduced The Equality Act (H.R. 15) is introduced and referred to House Judiciary and several other committees.
2. 2 17 months and counting Stuck in committee H.R. 15 has had no markup. The same bill died in the same committee in the last Congress.
3. 3 January 8, 2026 Forced to a House vote A discharge petition brings up H.R. 1834, a three-year ACA credit extension. It passes 230 to 196.
4. 4 Since February 10, 2026 Stalled in the Senate H.R. 1834 sits on the Senate calendar. No vote has been scheduled.
5. 5 July 1-3, 2025 Both chambers agree The Senate amends the budget bill (H.R. 1) and passes it when the vice president breaks a 50 to 50 tie. The House accepts that version 218 to 214.
6. 6 July 4 and December 29, 2025 Signed or vetoed H.R. 1 becomes Public Law 119-21. The Arkansas Valley Conduit bill (H.R. 131) is vetoed.

Sources: govinfo bill status for H.R. 15, H.R. 1834, H.R. 1 and H.R. 131; House Clerk roll call 11 (2026) and 190 (2025); Senate record vote 372 (2025); Senate veto list.

The ACA extension shows why passing one chamber is not the finish line. The House vote drew 17 Republicans and all 213 Democrats (House Clerk roll call 11). Without Senate action, it dies when this Congress ends in January 2027.

Where Most Bills Die

Most bills die without a single vote. In the 118th Congress, the share that moved past committee was small, and the share that became law was smaller still.

274

735

685

56

17,565

• Became law (274 bills and resolutions)
• Resolutions passed (not laws) (735 bills and resolutions)
• Got a vote, did not become law (685 bills and resolutions)
• Failed a vote or vetoed (56 bills and resolutions)
• No action past introduction or committee (17,565 bills and resolutions)

Source: GovTrack, final status of bills and resolutions in the 118th Congress (2023-2025).

The share that makes it has shrunk. The 108th Congress (2003-04) enacted 504 laws. Every Congress since 2011 has enacted fewer than 450.

The 118th Congress enacted fewer laws than any Congress since at least 2003.

Laws Enacted per Congress, 2009 to 2024

Category	Value
111th (2009-10)	385
112th (2011-12)	284
113th (2013-14)	296
114th (2015-16)	329
115th (2017-18)	443
116th (2019-20)	344
117th (2021-22)	365
118th (2023-24)	274

Source: GovTrack, enacted legislation by Congress. The 119th Congress has enacted 122 laws as of October 8, 2026, with less than three months left.

How the House and Senate Differ

The Senate’s 60-vote cloture rule is the widest gap between majority support and passage. 41 senators can block what 59 want. That is the filibuster, and it is a Senate rule, not part of the Constitution.

Budget reconciliation is the main way around the filibuster. It lets the Senate pass spending, tax, and debt limit changes with a simple majority. The trade-off is the Byrd Rule, which lets any senator strike provisions that do not mainly change federal spending or revenue.

Vetoes and Overrides

Congress overrides about 7 of every 100 regular vetoes. Overriding takes two-thirds of those voting in both chambers, and the Senate’s count shows how rarely that happens.

Those counts come from the Senate’s veto table. A regular veto returns the bill with the president’s objections, and Congress can try to override it. A pocket veto happens when Congress has adjourned, so there is no one to return the bill to.

Trump issued the first two vetoes of his second term on December 29, 2025. One blocked a bill changing the repayment terms for the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a water project in Colorado (H.R. 131). The other blocked a bill on the Miccosukee Tribe’s reserved area in the Everglades (H.R. 504) (Senate veto list).

The House voted on both overrides on January 8, 2026. H.R. 131 got 248 votes to 177, with 35 Republicans voting to override (roll call 9). With 425 members voting, it needed 284. H.R. 504 failed 236 to 188, with 24 Republicans in favor (roll call 8).

Three Paths to Policy

Not all policy moves through the regular process. The path chosen explains why some changes pass in weeks and others never get a vote.

Regular legislation lasts but needs 60 Senate votes. Reconciliation needs 51 but covers only the budget. Executive orders skip Congress, and the next president can reverse them on day one. In calendar year 2025 the president signed 225 of them (Federal Register).

Where Key Bills Stand in 2025-2026

The biggest law of this Congress passed the Senate on the vice president’s tie-breaking vote and the House by four votes. The 2025 budget law used reconciliation to cut federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over ten years, add work rules that states must start by January 1, 2027, and extend the 2017 tax cuts. The Senate split 50 to 50, and the vice president voted yes to break the tie (record vote 372). Neither margin would have survived a filibuster.

Where Five 2025-2026 Bills Stand

As of October 8, 2026

• H.R. 1, the 2025 budget law Law, P.L. 119-21

  Signed July 4, 2025. The Senate passed it 50 to 50 with the vice president breaking the tie, and the House 218 to 214. (source)

• H.R. 6644, 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Law, became law unsigned

  Presented to the president June 29, 2026. It became law without his signature on July 11, 2026, as P.L. 119-101. (source)

• H.R. 1834, ACA credit extension through 2028 Proposal, passed House

  Passed the House 230 to 196 on January 8, 2026. On the Senate calendar since February 10, with no vote. (source)

• H.R. 131, Arkansas Valley Conduit Ended, veto sustained

  Vetoed December 29, 2025. The House override failed 248 to 177 on January 8, 2026. (source)

• H.R. 504, Miccosukee Reserved Area Ended, veto sustained

  Vetoed December 29, 2025. The House override failed 236 to 188 on January 8, 2026. (source)

• H.R. 15, the Equality Act Proposal, in committee

  Introduced April 29, 2025 and referred to House Judiciary and other committees. No markup. (source)

Source: govinfo bill status; House Clerk roll calls; Senate veto list

Discharge Petitions Forced Votes Leadership Blocked

When leadership will not schedule a bill, 218 House members can sign a discharge petition to force it to the floor. It takes a majority of the whole House, so a handful of majority-party members have to join the minority.

The Social Security Fairness Act shows the whole path. It sat in the Ways and Means Committee from January 2023 until a discharge petition gathered the 218 signatures it needed in September 2024. It passed the House 327 to 75 in November 2024 (roll call 456), passed the Senate 76 to 20 that December, and became law on January 5, 2025. By July 2025, SSA had sent 3.1 million retroactive payments under it, one of the changes to Social Security since 2025. In January 2026, another discharge petition forced the House vote that passed an extension of the expired ACA subsidies, 230 to 196.

Not All Paths to Policy Are Equal

The legislative process is slow by design. Not every shortcut is a problem, and not every delay is obstruction.

• Reconciliation is not a loophole. Congress created it in the Budget Act of 1974, and both parties have used it for major bills. The Byrd Rule limits what it can contain.
• Executive orders are not laws. They direct federal agencies under powers Congress or the Constitution already gave the president. Some are routine. Others stretch that authority, and courts decide which.
• Committee gatekeeping filters real noise. Many of the bills that never move are duplicates or messaging bills. The problem is a popular bill blocked by one chair.
• The filibuster is not in the Constitution. It is a Senate rule the Senate can change. Whether it should is a policy debate, not a constitutional one.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many bills become law?

Under 2%. In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of more than 16,000 bills became law, according to GovTrack. The current Congress had enacted 122 as of October 14, 2026.

What is reconciliation?

A budget process that lets the Senate pass spending, tax, and debt limit changes by a simple majority instead of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster, because the Budget Act caps debate on a reconciliation bill at 20 hours. Both parties use it. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the 2025 budget law both passed this way.

Can the president make a law without Congress?

No. The Constitution vests the legislative power in Congress, and the Supreme Court said in 1952 that it limits the president’s role in lawmaking to recommending laws and vetoing them. An executive order is not a law, and the next president can revoke it, as President Trump did with a list of President Biden’s orders on January 20, 2025.

What is a discharge petition?

A House procedure that lets a majority of the whole House, 218 members, bring a bill to the floor when leaders will not. Once 218 sign, a motion to discharge can be offered on the floor. The Social Security Fairness Act petition reached 218 signatures in September 2024, before the House passed the bill that November, and another petition brought the ACA credit extension to its January 2026 vote.

How long does it take for a bill to become a law?

There is no set time. The 2025 budget law went from introduction to signing in about six weeks. The Social Security Fairness Act took two years, and most bills never finish.

What happens to bills that do not pass?

They die when the two-year Congress ends, because a bill can become law only during the Congress in which it was introduced. A sponsor can introduce it again in the next Congress, where it gets a new number and starts over.

Can a bill become law if the president does not sign it?

Yes. If the president neither signs nor vetoes a bill within 10 days, Sundays excepted, while Congress is in session, it becomes law unsigned. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law that way on July 11, 2026. Congress can also override a veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Does a bill start in the House or the Senate?

Either one, with one exception. The Constitution requires bills that raise revenue to start in the House (Article I, Section 7). Both chambers have to pass the same text before it goes to the president.

Where You Fit In the Process

Your call carries the most weight when you ask for a specific action at the step a bill is on. Find the bill on Congress.gov by its number, check its latest action, then open the situation below that matches. Our town hall guide covers how to ask a member about a bill in person.

Where is the bill you care about?

Open the stage that matches the bill's latest action on Congress.gov.

The bill was introduced and has not moved

1. Check the cosponsor list on Congress.gov to see if your representative or senators are on it.
2. If they are not, call and ask them to cosponsor it, using the bill number.
3. Say in one or two sentences why it matters to you or your town.

The bill is stuck in committee

1. Look up the committee on its website and check whether your member sits on it.
2. If yes, ask them to press the chair for a hearing and a markup.
3. If not, ask your member to raise it with the chair, or in the House, to sign a discharge petition if one is filed.

In the 118th Congress, 91% of bills and resolutions got no action past introduction or committee, according to GovTrack's bill statistics.

A floor vote is coming

1. Call your member's office and give the bill number and a yes or no ask.
2. Call in the days before the vote, when staff are counting where constituents stand.

It passed one chamber and stalled in the other

1. Contact the members of the chamber that has not acted. For a House-passed bill, that means your two senators.
2. Ask them to push leadership to schedule a vote before the Congress ends.

H.R. 1834 passed the House in January 2026 and has waited on the Senate calendar since February.

The president vetoed it

1. Ask your members to vote to override.
2. If they voted for the bill before, remind them of that vote.

An override needs two-thirds of those voting in each chamber. Congress has managed it 112 times since 1789.

1. Find your members. Look up your representative and two senators on Congress.gov. Save their office numbers before you need them.

2. Write when a bill is moving. Send a letter through Resistbot (text RESIST to 50409) or Democracy.io, and name the bill number in the first line.

3. Use a ready letter. Our letter library has letters and call scripts on bills and fights moving now.