Making Laws

Laws are made by the legislative branch of the government. This is a complex process that is quite involved. In order to start investigating this process in general I would lke you to read and explore the following web site: Making Laws in the United States.

When the Congress returns after the Christmas break the Congressmen are going to meet in a confernece committee to try and resolve the differences between the the two bills, one passed by the Senate, and the other passed by the House of Representatives, and re-write the bills to match each other exactly. Then each house will vote on the confernece bill, and if the bill passes each house by simple majority, the bill will move on to President Obama for his signature or veto. This process has been going on for months with the current bill, and several others have been defeated in the past or not been acted upon by the Congress.


Does Anybody Read the Bills?


The full text of House Bill can found at this link. and the full text of the Senate Bill can be found at this link. These two bills total over 2000 pages. Is there anyway to know what is in this Bill without reading it? I do not think that there is. If you are willing to trust other readers' view point on the difference between the two bills, try this article or this fact summary difference.

A Reuters Fact Box
also outlines differences.