Legislative Process
Name
Institution Affiliation
Legislative Process
The power to make laws is vested in Congress, encompassing the House of Representatives and the Senate. The legislative process begins with a representative of the Congress sponsoring a bill that is initially considered an idea. After the sponsor states the bill, it is then assigned to a committee for study wherein the committee releases it; the bill is placed on a calendar for the representative to vote, amend or debate. Upon being voted for by a simple majority, which consists of 218 out of the 435 representatives, the bill passes to the Senate, assigned to an additional committee (Lane, 2016). Subsequently, after it is amended, voted, or released, a simple majority of 51 out of 100 representatives must pass the bill (Lane, 2016).
A conference committee that comprises the Senate and House members then determines the differences between the bill’s versions presented by both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Upon establishing the differences between the two versions, the conference committee returns the resultant bill to the Senate and the House of Representatives for the final approval (Lane, 2016). Finally, the Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process referred to as enrolling, and the President has ten days to either veto or sign the enrolled bill.
The H.R. 7120: George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 was introduced and written by Karen Bass, the representative for California’s 37th congressional district, on June 8, 2020, at the 116th Congress (2019-2021). The bill’s primacy was meant to hold law enforcement officers accountable for misconduct in court (Lane, 2016). The bill also seeks to reform police training and policies in addition to improving transparency through data collection. The status of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 suggests that it successfully passed the House of Representatives on June 25, 2020, and is yet to be presented to the Senate for consideration. This means that the bill has passed the House committee whereby the simple majority 218 out of 435 voted in favor of the bill. Subsequently, the bill awaits to be represented to the Senate, wherein it will be assigned to the committee in the Senate.
Upon being voted for, it will move to the conference committee to determine the best version of the two bills submitted from the Senate and the House. After determining the differences between the two versions, the conference committee will return the resultant bill to the Senate and the House of Representatives for the final approval. Finally, the President will have ten days to either veto or sign the enrolled bill. The bill is constitutional as it seeks to facilitate federal enforcement of constitutional violations, including excessive use of force by local and state law enforcement authorities (Lane, 2016). It also constitutes policies that aim at increasing the accountability of law enforcement misconduct by lowering the criminal intent standard.
Reference
Lane, E. (2016). Legislative Process and Its Judicial Renderings: A Study in Contrast. U. Pitt. L. Rev., 48, 639.