The Legislative Process
"All Legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."
(Article I, Section 1, of the United States Constitution)
The chief function of Congress is the making of laws. The legislative process comprises a number of steps, and much information is available from this page concerning the legislation introduced and considered in the 110th Congress. To help you understand the information and how it interrelates, a very brief overview of the legislative process within the House of Representatives is presented below. There are many aspects and variations of the process which are not addressed here. A much more in-depth discussion and presentation of the overall process is available in How Our Laws Are Made. Most of the information presented below was excerpted from that Congressional document.