How a Bill Becomes a Law

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque) is a retired social worker serving his second term as a state senator. He serves the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods, as well as much of the UNM area. The Daily Lobo talked to Ortiz y Pino about how a bill becomes a law.

Step 1: Identify a problem
“The way most bills develop is from somebody saying there is a problem that needs to be addressed,” Ortiz y Pino said. “Sometimes this is a legislator or governor, but more frequently it’s a constituent, a student, a union member or a business man that says ‘we should do something about this.’”

Step 2: Legislator creates a bill
“There can be unintended consequences to a bill, or a bill may not do what is intended,” he said. “Before proposing a bill, a legislator will consider how best to write a bill that will fix the problem.”

Step 3: Draft the bill
The bill is sent to legislative counsel, a team of legal experts which writes the bill.

Step 4: Submit the bill to legislature
Legislators can submit a bill starting a month before the legislative session, and can submit a bill up until halfway through the legislative session.

Step 5: Assign a bill to committees
A bill is usually sent to two or more committees to evaluate it. The majority leader assigns bills to committees. Each time a bill passes a committee, it must be sent to the floor for a vote accepting the committee report before moving on to the next committee.

Step 6: The bill is sent to the floor
“If it gets through all of the committees, it goes to the floor and is placed on the agenda,” Ortiz y Pino said. “A lot of times it never gets voted on because the majority leader sets the agenda, and may (try to keep the bill from being voted on) for strategic purposes.”

Step 7: Send the bill to other body
If a bill passes the House of Representatives or the Senate, it goes to the other body to be voted on.

Step 8: Cross checking
If the House or Senate changes the language of the bill, then it must return to the other legislative body. Both bodies must pass the same bill.

Step 9: Send it to the governor
The bill goes to the governor and she can veto it or pass it. She has three days to veto before a bill becomes law during the session. After the session, she has twenty days to sign any bills. If she doesn’t sign them, they do not become law. This is known as a pocket veto.