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Legislation

Congress works in two year cycles. In 2011, we are in the 1st Session of the 112th Congress. In 2012 we will be in the 2nd Session of the 112th Congress. Thousands of bills are introduced in each Congress. The bills are only valid in the Congress in which they are introduced, for example a bill introduced in 2011 or 2012 and not passed in the 112th Congress will have to be reintroduced in the 113th Congress in 2013 to be considered again.

Bills are not written in a vacuum. They may result from a need or concern of a constituent. It may be an issue that is raised in testimony. It may arise from the platform of the President or the member of Congress themselves. The bills are crafted by Congressional staffers with input from legal advisors, scoring by the Congressional Budget Office to see how much it will cost, and with advice from outside and stakeholder agencies.

For the most part, in order for a bill to be successful, it is necessary for the legislation to attract a number of co-sponsors or supporters. The provisions of the bill may be very popular and the bill can be introduced with many co-sponsors, or support for the bill can grow over a longer period of time with sponsors signing on over time, or some bills languish with only one or two co-sponsors with little hope of being passed. Bills then are referred to the committees who have jurisdiction over them. If approved there they are then referred to the entire chamber, either Senate or House for passage.

Congress created a special website for Americans to track legislation and named it after Thomas Jefferson – http://thomas.loc.gov. You can look up legislation, track progress, see how many co-sponsors the bill has, and other pertinent information.