The Republicans control the Senate with 52 seats and the House of Representatives with 239. The Democrats have 47 in the Senate while they only hold 193 in the House. If you are wondering how a bill can be passed when Congress is controlled by Republicans, it would take a lot of bipartisan effort from both parties to get any legislation approved, as well as some presidential support.
With the current Republican-controlled Congress, it is difficult to imagine a bill being passed. But when President Obama was in office, he signed into law everything from health care reform and financial regulation to more affordable student loans. It can be confusing trying to understand how a bill becomes a law if you don’t know about the legislative process, but this article will explain it step by step.
The three things that are needed for any legislation to become law are:
- an idea or proposal
- approval of both houses of Congress
- signature by the president after passage. The first two steps happen before anyone even knows what’s happening and require no public input- just some good ideas and people who think they should be put into place!