POLSC232: American Government

Watch this two-part presentation to learn how a bill makes its way through the halls of Congress before it lands on the president's desk to be signed into law. Thousands of bills are introduced each session in Congress, and these bills must traverse a highly complex legislative process involving committees, floor debates, interest-group influence, and party power struggles. This complexity not only slows the process of enacting legislation, it also provides a tremendous built-in advantage for opponents of any bill to block it. Supporters of a bill must have success at every step. Opponents need to win only once. Of the approximate 8,000 bills that are introduced in every two-year congressional cycle, only five percent become public laws.