Changes

A corporation, citizen, group, or any other entity can propose an idea for a bill to a legislator as the first step to get a bill created. If the legislator is in favor of the idea, he or she researches the idea and writes it into a bill.

Since there are numerous bills proposed daily, committees composed of small groups of legislators, review the content of the proposed bill in detail. In addition, the bill needs a sponsor. Once a bill acquires this sponsor and gains the support of some other legislators, it is fit for introduction to the U.S House of Representatives

Only legislator in the House of Representatives can introduce the bill to the House. The bill is then read out to all of the Representatives and sent to one of the House standing committees.

When the bill arrives at the committee, members of the committee that are experts on the bill's topics research and review the bill before voting on whether or not to send it back to the House floor. If more information on the bill is needed, committees may refer a bill to a subcommittee for further study and hearings on the piece of legislation. Hearings provide an opportunity for experts, proponents, and opposition to make their views known during the subcommittee review process. Following the hearing process, subcommittees may amend the bill prior to forwarding the piece of legislation to the full committee.

Full committees then make a recommendation to the House floor on whether or not they believe the bill should be approve or rejected. Furthermore, they may abstain from making a recommendation. The procedure is formally known as "ordering a bill reported".

The Representatives of the House discuss and debate the bill. Representatives recommend changes and with enough support, enact those changes onto the bill. When all changes are final, the bill is ready to be voted on.

There are three methods by which bills are voted on in the House of Representatives