A bill is a proposal for a law. Ideas for bills come from many sources: a legislator's constituents, businesses, government agencies, professional associations, interest groups and other state legislatures. When a legislator recognizes or is made aware of a problem which could be pursued through legislation, that idea is put into the form of a bill. In Iowa, only legislators are able to introduce bills.

Bills may be sponsored by a Senator or Representative, or by a Senate or House committee. All bills must be approved by both the Senate and the House before being sent to the Governor for final approval.

To illustrate how a bill becomes a law, we will follow the path of a bill sponsored by a Senator, which must first be approved by the Senate before it can be sent to the House. If a bill is sponsored by a Representative, the process will be reversed, with the bill first being approved by the House and then sent to the Senate for consideration.

Preparation
Once a Senator decides to sponsor a bill, the Senator submits a request to the Legislative Service Bureau to write or draft the bill. Iowa law requires that all bills must be drafted by the Legislative Service Bureau a nonpartisan agency staffed by attorneys and research analysts who put the bill into proper legal form.

Introduction
After the bill draft is completed, it is returned to the sponsor for review and filed with the Secretary of the Senate, who assigns the bill a number. The bill is reviewed by the Senate legal counsel's office for accuracy of format, and on the following day the bill's number, title and sponsor's name are read to the Senate. The President of the Senate, the presiding officer of the chamber, assigns the bill to a standing committee for review.

Standing Committee Work
A standing committee is a group of legislators chosen by the leadership of each chamber to examine all bills relating to a specific subject area. Once a bill is assigned to a committee, the committee chairperson, a member of the Senate's majority party, appoints a subcommittee. The subcommittee, usually composed of three members of the standing committee, reviews the bill in detail and reports its conclusions to the full committee. The full committee then discusses the subcommittee's conclusions and makes recommendations to the entire Senate. The committee may recommend to pass the bill, to pass the bill with amendment, to refer the bill to another committee for study, to postpone the bill indefinitely, or to send the bill to the floor for debate with no recommendation. Occasionally, committee members decide to hold a public hearing on the bill where anyone may testify in favor of or in opposition to the bill. Committee members' decisions on the bill may be affected by testimony presented at a public hearing. In an emergency the committee may vote to eliminate the subcommittee process and review the bill immediately.

The Calendar
A report of the committee's recommendation is sent to the Secretary of the Senate, who will place the bill on the Senate's regular calendar, which lists bills that are eligible to be debated. Bills are arranged on the calendar in the order they are received from committees. A bill considered important may be brought up for consideration by the Senate ahead of the other bills listed before it on the calendar. The majority leader is responsible for deciding which bills on the calendar will be debated.

Debate
After the committee completes work on the bill, the subcommittee's chairperson usually becomes the bill's floor manager. The floor manager's job is to present the bill to the chamber and follow the bill's progress during debate, when Senators discuss and may propose amendments to the bill. Amendments are adopted by a simple majority of the Senators voting.

When debate on a bill is.finished, the bill's title is read aloud to the chamber for the last time. This tradition of reading the bill's number and title dates from the early days of the Legislature when bills were read in their entirety to the members because printed copies were not available for everyone. If a constitutional majority (at least 26 Senators) votes to pass the bill, it moves to the House. If fewer Senators than a constitutional majority vote to pass the bill, the bill fails and is dead. Votes on bills and amendments may be reconsidered on a motion by a member who voted on the prevailing side of the issue. If the motion to reconsider is approved, a new vote is taken on the bill or amendment. If the bill is then approved by a constitutional majority vote and all motions to reconsider are cleared, it is delivered to the House.

Second Passage
Amendments adopted by the Senate become part of the bill before it is sent to the House. As the bill follows its path through the Legislature, the procedure in the House is basically the same: filing with the Chief Clerk of the House, review by the House legal counsel's office, referral by the Speaker of the House to a committee, subcommittee study, committee recommendation, debate, and amendment. A bill introduced in the Senate will retain its original Senate number as it travels through the House and a bill introduced in the House will retain.its original House number as it travels through the Senate. To pass the House, a bill must be approved by a constitutional majority of 51 Representatives. If the Senate bill is amended by the House, the amendment is sent back to the Senate for approval. If the Senate concurs or agrees with the amendment, the bill has passed both chambers in identical form and will be sent to the Governor for review. If the Senate refuses to concur with the House amendment, the bill is returned to the House, which may recede from or insist upon the amendment. If the House recedes, the bill is sent to the Governor. If the House insists upon its amendment, a conference committee is appointed to work out the differences.

Conference Committee
Conference committees are composed of Senate and House members representing both the majority and minority parties and both sides of the issue in dispute. The 10 members of a conference committee are appointed by the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House to study the points of disagreement between the chambers in an attempt to reach a compromise. If an agreement is reached, it is presented to both chambers in a report that contains the compromise version of the bill. The report cannot be amended by either chamber. If the report is rejected by either chamber, a second conference committee may be appointed. If no agreement is reached, the bill dies. If the conference committee report is adopted, the chambers again vote on the bill. If the bill is approved it will be enrolled and sent to the Governor for review.

Final preparation of a bill before it is sent to the Governor is called enrollment. When both chambers have passed the bill in the same form, it is prepared with all approved amendments incorporated. After the bill is enrolled, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House sign the enrolled version and the Secretary of the Senate or Chief Clerk of the House certifies that the bill originated in that chamber. The bill is then sent to the Governor for final action.

Governor's Action
Bills passed by the Legislature must be reviewed by the Governor. The Governor has three options: sign the bill, veto the bill and send it back to the Legislature, or take no action. In the case of a veto, the Legislature may override the veto with two-thirds of the members of each chamber voting to pass the bill again. If, during the legislative session, the Governor does not sign or veto a bill, it becomes law after three days. Bills received by the Governor during or after the last three days of the session must be signed or vetoed within 30 days.

The Governor has the option to use three types of vetoes: the veto, item veto and pocket veto. The veto indicates the Governor's disapproval of an entire bill. The item veto may be used only for bills which appropriate funds, and strikes a specific item of a bill. A pocket veto occurs when the Governor fails to take action within 30 days on a bill received within or after the last three days of the session. The entire bill then fails to become law.

Iowa Law
After the bill is signed by the Governor or is passed by the Legislature over the Governor's veto, it is sent to the Secretary of State who is the custodian of original copies of all bills enacted into law. Bills normally go into effect July 1 following their approval, unless another date is specified in the bill. Bills passed by the Legislature before July but signed by the Governor after July 1 become effective August 15.

The enacted bills are then printed in the Acts of the General Assembly, published after each legislative session. The portions of the enacted bills that are laws of a permanent nature are incorporated into the Code of Iowa, a compilation of Iowa laws published every other year. A supplement to the Code is published in the year in which the entire Code of Iowa is not published. These documents are published by the Iowa Code Division of the Legislative Service Bureau.

Chart of How a Bill Becomes a Law