How does a law get made? In the United States, every new law starts out as an idea, and a bill is a plan for a new law, or a change to an old law. We will follow a bill from its first step to its last, and after that we will look at how the United Kingdom makes its laws. Let's begin with the idea, because every new law starts out as one, and next comes the bill. Let's go step by step.

Start with who makes the laws. Congress is the part of the national government that makes laws, and Congress has two parts: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Here are the numbers. As of November 2026, the House of Representatives has 435 seats, and as of November 2026, the Senate has 100 members. Each state has two senators. Keep these two parts in mind, because the bill meets both of them as it goes along. Both are part of Congress. Let's look at each one.

Now go back to 1787, when leaders called the Framers met in Philadelphia and wrote the U.S. Constitution. Here is one way seats in Congress are counted. The Great Compromise gave each state equal seats in the Senate and seats in the House based on population, and the Great Compromise was approved on July 16, 1787. So the Senate gives each state the same number of seats, and the House counts by population. Let's look at the Great Compromise more closely.

Next, how does a bill begin? People can ask their lawmakers to start a new law, and a bill can be started by a member of the House or Senate. One kind of bill has a special rule, and the rule is about money. Only the House of Representatives can start a bill about taxes or raising money, although the Senate can still make changes to it. There is more to learn about the first steps. Let's look at them in order.

Once a bill is introduced, it goes to a committee. After a bill is introduced, it goes to a committee of lawmakers who study it and can change it, and lawmakers vote on a bill. When the House passes a bill, it goes to the Senate, which studies and votes on it too. In this way the bill is looked at by one house of Congress and then by the other. Let's see where it goes. It goes from one place to the next.

The two parts of Congress must agree. A bill has to pass both the House and the Senate before the president can sign it. Sometimes the Senate changes a bill, and if the Senate changes a bill, the House has to look at the changes. The two sides must work out their differences. When the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, a conference committee with members from both can work out the differences. This is a big step. Let's see how the two sides do it.

Then the bill reaches the president. The president can sign a bill into law, or the president can say no to a bill, and that is called a veto. The Constitution gives the president 10 days, not counting Sundays, to act on a bill. So the president has a set amount of time to act on a bill, and that time is written into the Constitution. Let's look at what happens to the bill. It is now in the president's hands.

A veto can be answered by Congress. If the president vetoes a bill, Congress can sometimes vote to override the veto and make it a law, and to override a veto, Congress needs a two-thirds vote in each house. There is one kind of veto that works differently, because a pocket veto cannot be overridden by Congress. So Congress can sometimes override a veto, but it cannot override a pocket veto. Let's see what Congress can do. It is not always the end of the road.

The U.S. government has three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The president leads the executive branch, which enforces the laws, and the Supreme Court is part of the judicial branch. The system of checks and balances lets each branch respond to the actions of the others. For example, the Supreme Court can overturn laws that go against the Constitution. The Constitution says laws made under it are the supreme law of the land, and judges in every state must follow them. Let's step back and look at the whole government. It has more than one part.

Cities and towns can make laws too. Local laws are often called ordinances, and a city council or county commission can pass them. Other countries make laws in their own ways, and the United Kingdom is one example. In the United Kingdom, Parliament makes the laws. In the United Kingdom, a bill must be approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords before it becomes an Act of Parliament.

Words to know

• bill: law plan
• veto: saying no
• committee: study group
• ordinances: local laws
• Parliament: UK lawmakers