Bill (law)

projet de loi) if introduced by the government, or a "law proposition" (Fr.

Some legislatures do not make this terminological distinction (for example the Dutch parliament uses wetsontwerp and wetsvoorstel interchangeably).

[5] Pre-legislative scrutiny is a formal process carried out by a parliamentary committee on a draft bill.

[6] In the Parliament of India, the draft bill is sent to the individual ministry relating to the matter.

From there the bill goes to the Ministry of Law and Justice and is then passed on to the Cabinet committee, which the prime minister heads.

Mechanisms exist to allow other members of the legislature to introduce bills, but they are subject to strict timetables and usually fail unless a consensus is reached.

This may include MPs, Lords, professionals and experts in the field, and other people who the bill may affect.

After this is the report stage, in which the entire house reviews any and all changes made to the bill since its conception and may bring further amendments.

Bills passed by the legislature usually require the approval of the head of state such as the monarch, president, or governor to become law.

Exceptions are the Irish Free State from the abolition of the governor-general in December 1936 to the creation of the office of president in December 1937, and Israel from its formation until today, during which period bills approved by the Oireachtas and Knesset respectively became/become law immediately (though, in Israel's case, the laws are ceremonially signed after their passage by the president).

However, in most cases, the executive – a cabinet of ministers responsible to parliament – takes a veto by the head of state into account.

[10] In presidential systems, the head of state is also the chief executive, and the need to receive approval can be used as a political tool by them.

In some jurisdictions, a bill passed by the legislature may also require approval by a constitutional court.

If the court finds the bill would violate the constitution it may annul it or send it back to the legislature for correction.

In Ireland, the president has discretion under Article 26 of the Constitution to refer bills to the Supreme Court.

In Brazil, bills originating in both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies are numbered sequentially, prefixed with "PL" (Projeto de Lei) and optionally suffixed with the year they were proposed, separated by a slash, as in PL 1234/1988.

In the United Kingdom, for example, the Coroners and Justice Act in 2009 started as Bill 9 in the House of Commons.

In the United States, all bills originating in the House of Representatives are numbered sequentially and prefixed with "H.R."

Each two-year span is called a congress, tracking the terms of Representatives elected in the nationwide biennial House of Representatives elections, and each congress is divided into year-long periods called sessions.