Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Which branch of government has the power to make laws?

Many western governments, including the United States, have three branches: The legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. The legislative branch - Congress, in the federal government of the United States - is the one that has the power to make laws.
Focusing on the United States government, the legislature's power to create laws comes from the U.S. Constitution. Article 1 creates the U.S. legislature and splits it into two chambers - the House of Representatives and the Senate. Article 1, Section 7 explains how proposed laws, called bills, pass through the House and the Senate, and then get signed into law by the head of the executive branch of the government, the President of the United States. This process is explained in a little more detail in the classic video that you probably saw in civics class:
An important distinction: This is how laws are made. Regulations are different. While the legislative branch of government is responsible for making laws, it is up to the executive branch to enforce (or execute) them. Oftentimes, Congress will create a law and then set up a new agency in the executive branch to enforce that law. The law that Congress creates is typically left intentionally vague, leaving the agency lots of room to enforce it in ways they think necessary. When the agency makes a decision about how to enforce the law it is tasked with, those decisions are not laws - they are regulations.
An example of this in action in the United States is the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC. Congress created a law, the Communications Act of 1934, that aimed to control radio communications. The Communications Act created an agency in the executive branch, the FCC, to enforce the law. Since 1934, the FCC has issued numerous regulations that have allowed it to react to developments in the telecommunications world, like the invention of television and, later, the internet, without having to go through Congress, first.


Assuming you are referring to US federal laws, the legislative branch of the federal government is the US Congress.
The Congress is formed by two legislative bodies (houses). These are the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Representatives for the two houses are elected, and anyone elected to either can propose new laws.
The proposal for a new law is called a bill, and once it is introduced, members of the House of Representatives or of the Senate will meet to discuss it or make changes to it. The House which met for the discussion will then vote on the bill; if it is approved, the bill is then presented to the other body and will go through a similar process.
When the bill has been approved by both houses, it will be presented to the president, who can approve it and make it into a law or choose to directly veto it within ten days. In case of veto, the president sends the bill back to Congress with his or her objections. If this happens, Congress can, in most cases, override the veto and make the bill a law anyway, providing both houses pass it with a two-thirds majority.
However, it is not possible to override a pocket veto. A pocket veto occurs if Congress is adjourned before the president signs a bill into law within the ten-day signing period. In this case, the bill does not become a law.
https://www.usa.gov/how-laws-are-made

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