Quickly describing things...anyway...How are laws created in the US?
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[00:00:18]
Jesse Fries:
Can somebody please tell me why they put washing machines on the second floor? I swear to god. Mine just flooded my entire upstairs, and it started raining down into the garage. Yeah. Lovely. Seriously, why do they do it? I just don't understand. Makes no sense. Makes no sense. Hopefully, I can get the smell and hopefully it doesn't smell like mildew and whatnot after a couple days. Got a fan going. But anyway, so how are laws created in the United States? It's a long evolved process really, but to boil it down, the idea is that somebody comes up with the idea whether or not this was done by the president, by somebody in Congress, by lobby group, or just by somebody, a constituent, you know, somebody that actually votes for the people in Congress, like me or you, you know, regular citizen.
After that, then you get into drafting it, because you have the idea, but then you actually have to draft it, you have to make it work with the system and everything like that. As usually this is done by, well, it's done by the staff or lobbyists. So staff of the of a congress member or by lobbyists. This is involves writing the bill in legal language, tip, plea with the assistance of legislative counsel and attorneys and everything like that. And as I said, lobbies are often involved. They're most often the ones that actually write it. That's why a lot of times these bills have things in it that you just go in, well, that makes absolutely no sense. Plus, representatives and senators, they're just elected officials, they're actually not that smart. Overall, they just like that system. They know how to work that system, but they actually don't know anything beyond that. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some that actually do know, I'd probably put like Bernie Sanders or Ron Paul, rant or Rand Paul, all these people, I put those into people that would actually know something about the bills and everything like that. But I would say most of them really don't.
After the bill is created, what it is, is that it's introduced into the house or the Senate. And a bill must be introduced by representative into the House of Representatives. It's giving the HR number or a house resolution number. And then it's referred to a committee. In the senate, a bill could start actually in the Senate or in the House of Representatives is actually doesn't matter. So in the Senate, it's similar. The bill is introduced by a senator and then sent to a committee. Once it gets to a committee, the committee or subcommittee, they hold hearings, they have experts, advocates, stakeholders can testify things like this. This stage involves detail examination of it. You can also write amendments. So if you need to put in some pork or something like that, just let it pass a pet project, then this is where it gets put in.
After this, after the hearings, the committee might mark it up, so they might actually propose changes and things like that. And then once the changes are done, then the committee votes on whether or not to let the move the bill move forward. After that, if a bill gets stuck in committees, members can attempt to bypass that, by actually sending it straight to the house. But that would require signatures from a majority of the members of each house. So whether majority of senators or majority of representatives. From there, there's a debate. Once it gets into the full house or the full senate, there's a debate, and the bill goes to the floor.
And then there are amendments that can be proposed here. Sometimes they're added, sometimes they're not. Members argue for or against this, you know, the just classic debate of Congress. From there, it's voted upon. That's if debate actually concludes, cause in the Senate, you can actually have what is called a filibuster. So, like, one senator can actually hold up the passing of a bill just by, well, the old way was just by talking, You you could hold it until you couldn't stand or talk anymore. But there's actually a movie about that. I I can't remember his name, but so and so, goes to Washington, is the name of the movie.
And so it kinda gives an example of that. And then, once it actually passes by, like, a simple majority in both the senate and the house, then you can go from there. But if there is a filibuster, you actually require the senate requires 60 votes to actually get it past the filibuster. And so that is where things can get crazy, and that's why a lot of bills actually don't pass. That's why a lot of times we think that the Congress can't get anything done, is because the senate can hold things up, because you need 60 votes to get it just to the point of voting. So it's a bit complicated there.
From there, so both houses have voted on this bill. Now, sometimes the bills are different slightly, or sometimes a lot. So but they're the same sort of thing. So basically, what has to happen is that since this house has one bill that is like the senate bill, but not exact, they have to actually be exact for it to go to the president. So at this time, then they have a conference, conference committee where the house and the senate, they get together, and then they try to see if they can actually come up with a compromise on the bill. And then from there, once they have a compromised bill, then it has to go back to the house or the senate, actually, the house and the senate, and have them both vote in the affirmative for that. You have to get majorities on both those. So basically, once it's voted upon, if it's not the same as the senate, it may have to be voted upon again by both house and senate.
From there, then it's up to the pre president. The president gets the bill, and there there's a few options he can actually do. First off is just to sign it. Sign the site sign it into law, the president can sign the bill making it law once he signed it, signs it, it is law. He could also veto it. Basically, he's just sends it back to Congress, with objections and saying, nope, this bill is not gonna pass. I'm not gonna let it go. And then there's also a pocket video veto. A pocket veto happens once Congress has adjourned. And if they don't come back within 10 days, the president can just let it slide, not sign it, not veto it, and it'll just slide into not an existence.
But then there's also an option where he could do nothing. So if the Congress is actually still in session, he can just do nothing, and then it will actually become law. I know that's a bit weird how it's like if the Congress isn't in session, it's a it's a pocket veto. But if the house or if Congress is in session, then it's turns into law. It seems weird to me, but that's the way the system is set up. From there, if the president actually vetoes the bill, Congress can actually override that veto. And but to do that, they have to have 2 thirds vote majority in both the house and the senate. And if they can do that, then the law becomes, or the then the bill becomes a law, even though the president vetoed it.
Once that happens, once it becomes law, the bill, gets interpreted or the law becomes interpreted and implemented by the executive branch by the by the president's, guys, in whatever branch of the executive they are, whether it's the FBI, whether it's the FCC, whether it's Homeland Security, or transportation, or any of those, it doesn't matter any, but any those are the ones that actually implement the law. And that is how we actually get a law.
Can somebody please tell me why they put washing machines on the second floor? I swear to god. Mine just flooded my entire upstairs, and it started raining down into the garage. Yeah. Lovely. Seriously, why do they do it? I just don't understand. Makes no sense. Makes no sense. Hopefully, I can get the smell and hopefully it doesn't smell like mildew and whatnot after a couple days. Got a fan going. But anyway, so how are laws created in the United States? It's a long evolved process really, but to boil it down, the idea is that somebody comes up with the idea whether or not this was done by the president, by somebody in Congress, by lobby group, or just by somebody, a constituent, you know, somebody that actually votes for the people in Congress, like me or you, you know, regular citizen.
After that, then you get into drafting it, because you have the idea, but then you actually have to draft it, you have to make it work with the system and everything like that. As usually this is done by, well, it's done by the staff or lobbyists. So staff of the of a congress member or by lobbyists. This is involves writing the bill in legal language, tip, plea with the assistance of legislative counsel and attorneys and everything like that. And as I said, lobbies are often involved. They're most often the ones that actually write it. That's why a lot of times these bills have things in it that you just go in, well, that makes absolutely no sense. Plus, representatives and senators, they're just elected officials, they're actually not that smart. Overall, they just like that system. They know how to work that system, but they actually don't know anything beyond that. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some that actually do know, I'd probably put like Bernie Sanders or Ron Paul, rant or Rand Paul, all these people, I put those into people that would actually know something about the bills and everything like that. But I would say most of them really don't.
After the bill is created, what it is, is that it's introduced into the house or the Senate. And a bill must be introduced by representative into the House of Representatives. It's giving the HR number or a house resolution number. And then it's referred to a committee. In the senate, a bill could start actually in the Senate or in the House of Representatives is actually doesn't matter. So in the Senate, it's similar. The bill is introduced by a senator and then sent to a committee. Once it gets to a committee, the committee or subcommittee, they hold hearings, they have experts, advocates, stakeholders can testify things like this. This stage involves detail examination of it. You can also write amendments. So if you need to put in some pork or something like that, just let it pass a pet project, then this is where it gets put in.
After this, after the hearings, the committee might mark it up, so they might actually propose changes and things like that. And then once the changes are done, then the committee votes on whether or not to let the move the bill move forward. After that, if a bill gets stuck in committees, members can attempt to bypass that, by actually sending it straight to the house. But that would require signatures from a majority of the members of each house. So whether majority of senators or majority of representatives. From there, there's a debate. Once it gets into the full house or the full senate, there's a debate, and the bill goes to the floor.
And then there are amendments that can be proposed here. Sometimes they're added, sometimes they're not. Members argue for or against this, you know, the just classic debate of Congress. From there, it's voted upon. That's if debate actually concludes, cause in the Senate, you can actually have what is called a filibuster. So, like, one senator can actually hold up the passing of a bill just by, well, the old way was just by talking, You you could hold it until you couldn't stand or talk anymore. But there's actually a movie about that. I I can't remember his name, but so and so, goes to Washington, is the name of the movie.
And so it kinda gives an example of that. And then, once it actually passes by, like, a simple majority in both the senate and the house, then you can go from there. But if there is a filibuster, you actually require the senate requires 60 votes to actually get it past the filibuster. And so that is where things can get crazy, and that's why a lot of bills actually don't pass. That's why a lot of times we think that the Congress can't get anything done, is because the senate can hold things up, because you need 60 votes to get it just to the point of voting. So it's a bit complicated there.
From there, so both houses have voted on this bill. Now, sometimes the bills are different slightly, or sometimes a lot. So but they're the same sort of thing. So basically, what has to happen is that since this house has one bill that is like the senate bill, but not exact, they have to actually be exact for it to go to the president. So at this time, then they have a conference, conference committee where the house and the senate, they get together, and then they try to see if they can actually come up with a compromise on the bill. And then from there, once they have a compromised bill, then it has to go back to the house or the senate, actually, the house and the senate, and have them both vote in the affirmative for that. You have to get majorities on both those. So basically, once it's voted upon, if it's not the same as the senate, it may have to be voted upon again by both house and senate.
From there, then it's up to the pre president. The president gets the bill, and there there's a few options he can actually do. First off is just to sign it. Sign the site sign it into law, the president can sign the bill making it law once he signed it, signs it, it is law. He could also veto it. Basically, he's just sends it back to Congress, with objections and saying, nope, this bill is not gonna pass. I'm not gonna let it go. And then there's also a pocket video veto. A pocket veto happens once Congress has adjourned. And if they don't come back within 10 days, the president can just let it slide, not sign it, not veto it, and it'll just slide into not an existence.
But then there's also an option where he could do nothing. So if the Congress is actually still in session, he can just do nothing, and then it will actually become law. I know that's a bit weird how it's like if the Congress isn't in session, it's a it's a pocket veto. But if the house or if Congress is in session, then it's turns into law. It seems weird to me, but that's the way the system is set up. From there, if the president actually vetoes the bill, Congress can actually override that veto. And but to do that, they have to have 2 thirds vote majority in both the house and the senate. And if they can do that, then the law becomes, or the then the bill becomes a law, even though the president vetoed it.
Once that happens, once it becomes law, the bill, gets interpreted or the law becomes interpreted and implemented by the executive branch by the by the president's, guys, in whatever branch of the executive they are, whether it's the FBI, whether it's the FCC, whether it's Homeland Security, or transportation, or any of those, it doesn't matter any, but any those are the ones that actually implement the law. And that is how we actually get a law.
