Legislative Branch

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• lawmaking authority of the legislative branch of the federal government is outlined in Article I, section 8 of the Constitution
• legislative branch is called Congress
• has limited lawmaking power
  • cannot make any laws outside the scope that the Constitution specifically delegated to it

2 Chambers

• Senate
  • 100 members
    • 2 from each state
  • represents all states equally
• U.S. House of Representatives
  • 435 members
    • represents population
    • each representative represents a congressional district
  • congressional districts have roughly the same number of people
  • districts are redrawn after each decennial census
  • each state gets at least 1 representative

Powers of The Legislative Branch

• Article I, section 8 of Constitution lists powers delegated to Congress:
  • Declare war
  • Establish the post office
  • Maintain armed forces
  • Coin (or print) money
  • Regulate commerce
  • Make other laws necessary for carrying out its constitutional duties
• Commerce Clause grants Congress the power to regulate commerce between the state
  • uses this provision as justification to regulate trade and other commercial activity
  • many Supreme Court cases have reviewed the limits of this power
    • generally, if an activity has the potential to affect the trade relations between states, then congress can legislate it

Preemption refers to the legal concept that means that a higher-ranking law will exclude or preempt a lower-ranking law on the same subject.

• holds in the federal legislative context with respect to the Commerce Clause
• states are preempted from making laws that may affect trade relations between states

Legislative Process

• Constitution specifies the basic lawmaking process:
  • A bill is the initial draft of a potential law
  • both chambers of Congress must approve the same bill
  • then the president must sign it

Chamber Process

• procedural documents of both chambers describe the process for moving bills through each chamber
  • once a bill is introduced, it is generally assigned to a specialty committee
    • bill is revised during the committee process
    • includes hearings to determine why a law is needed in the first place
    • after a hearing, the committee votes on whether it should be sent to the full chamber
  • when a bill passes one chamber, it is forwarded to the other chamber
  • once a bill passes both chambers, it goes to a conference committee
    • made of both senators’ and house’ versions of the bills
    • cannot substantially change the bills
    • but tries to reach a compromise on both versions
    • when the committee reaches a resolution, each chamber votes on the bill again
    • if the original conference committee cannot reach an agreement:
      • the bill may be assigned to a new conference committee
      • or go back into committees of each chamber for more revisions
  • all bills that pass in Congress are signed by:
    • Speaker of House of Representatives
    • the president of the Senate
• Then goes to the president to be signed
  • has 10 days to sign a bill or veto
  • if not signed, it becomes law without a signature
• Passed laws become effective and binding in all states and territories of the U.S.