The role of Congress

Adetailed proposal for law is called a bill. A bill may be introduced first in either the House of Representatives or the Senate bya member of that house, who is called a sponsor. The more sponsors a bill has, and the more important and influential they are, the more likely it is to pass, especially if the sponsors come from different political parties.

The bill is then referred to committee, i.e. it is examined by an appropriate committee in the house where it was introduced. Abill dealing with farming, for example, would go to the Agriculture Committee. The committee holds public hearings at which experts testify (= give their opinion of the bill). The committee members themselves then have a chance to give their opinion and to suggest changes. Ifthe bill does not receive strong support, it may be tabled. (Table means here, in American English, 'to put aside or postpone', not, as in British English 'to bring forward for discussion'). In theory, this means that the committee can return to it later, but in practice it is often never considered again. Many bills die in committee.

If the members of a committee vote to approve the bill, they send it back for discussion to the house as a whole. After the debate members vote for or against it, either by a voice vote, when members say 'yea' or 'nay', or with a recorded vote, when an electronic system makes a record of how each member votes.

Ifa bill passes in the house where it began, it goes to the other house. There, a similar process of debate begins, first in committee and then by the whole house. If the bill passes, changes made in the second house mean that the bill is different from that passed by the firsthouse, so the House of Representatives and the Senate together form a conference committee to create a final version. This version has to go back to both houses for another vote.

At all of these stages, where changes are made to a bill, lobbyists work hard to try to make it favourable to their interests. Sponsors of the bill try to convince other members of Congress to vote on it, sometimes bychanging parts of the bill to make it more acceptable, sometimes by promising their support for other members' bills.