Chapter One Federal Government - Minnesota State Legislature

Chapter
Four
State Legislature
Chapter Four State Legislature
34
ENACTMENT OF LEGISLATION
A bill for an act is an idea for a new law or an idea to change or abolish an existing law. Ideas follow
ten steps on their way to becoming Minnesota laws.
1. The idea: Anyone can propose an idea for a bill—an individual, a consumer group, a corporation,
a professional association, a governmental unit, the governor—but most frequently ideas
come from members of the legislature.
2. The chief author: Each bill must have a legislator to introduce it. The chief author’s name
appears first on the bill with the bill’s file number as identification while it moves through the legislative
process.
3. Other authors: There may be up to 34 coauthors from the house and four from the senate. Their
names also appear on the bill.
4. The revisor of statutes: The revisor puts the idea into the proper legal form as a bill for introduction
into the house of representatives or the senate, usually both. The revisor also updates
Minnesota Statutes after the legislative session to include all new laws.
5. Introduction: When introduced in the house, a bill receives a house file number (H.F. 2312, for
example); in the senate, a senate file number (S.F. 503, for example). These numbers indicate the
bill’s chronological order of introduction in each body.
6. Committee consideration: Next the bill has its first reading (the Minnesota constitution
requires three readings for all bills on three separate days), and the presiding officer of the house or
senate refers it to an appropriate standing committee.
All committee meetings are open to the public. A committee may:
• recommend passage of a bill in its original form;
• recommend passage after amendment by the committee;
• make no recommendation, in which case a bill may die when the session ends;
• refer a bill to another committee (one requiring funds to the finance committee, for example).
After acting on a bill, the committee sends a report to the house or senate, stating its actions and
recommendations.
7. General Register and General Orders: After the full house or senate accepts the committee
report, the bill has its second reading and is placed on the house agenda, called the General
Register, or the senate agenda, called General Orders. (A committee can recommend that
noncontroversial bills bypass the General Register or General Orders and go onto the Consent
Calendar, where bills usually pass without debate.) After this point, house and senate procedures
differ slightly.
In the house, the General Register serves as a parking lot where bills await action by the full body.
Bills chosen to appear on the Calendar for the Day or the Fiscal Calendar are drawn from the
General Register.
The senate uses a different procedure. Bills are listed on the General Orders agenda. Senate members,
acting as the “committee of the whole,” have a chance to debate the issue and offer amendments
on the bill. Afterward, they vote to recommend passage of the bill, progress (delay action),
or further committee action, and sometimes they recommend that a bill not pass. From here, the
bill is placed on the calendar.