Federal Policy Process 

The legal process begins with the introduction of a bill in Congress and ends with its interpretation by the federal court system. The legal process produces a series of government documents that constitute the governmental history of public policy in the United States. This guide summarizes both the process and the documents that are produced as legislation becomes public policy. A similar guide, Policy Making in Indiana: Processes and Information, outlines the steps and information resources related to policy development in the State of Indiana.

Choosing a Research Topic

Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, now CQ Weekly, or its yearly Almanac is a good place to locate a research topic. It reports on happenings in Congress and behind-the-scenes political information.

Interest Groups, Public Opinion and Lobbyists

Public opinion and interest groups influence every stage of the policy process. Interest groups issue press releases and reports critiquing policy at nearly every stage of the process.

How Laws are Made

Knowledge of the process by which a bill becomes a law is necessary for conducting legislative research.

Proposed Legislation - Bills

One or more members of the Senate or House of Representatives may introduce bills for consideration by the Congress. Bills are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are introduced during the two-year Congressional term. Bills that do not complete the legislative process automatically die at the end of the two-year Congressional term in which they were introduced. Bills are cited as House Bill (H.R.) or Senate Bill (S.).

Committee Action - Committee Information

Committees consider legislation, conduct hearings and investigations, and carry out other assignments as instructed by the chamber. Some (but not all) Committees have Subcommittees, which handle some specific issues assigned to the committee.

Committee Action - Hearings

Most bills are automatically referred to a committee for research and consideration. If a bill warrants consideration a subcommittee will hear testimony from expert witnesses. Hearings include the text of testimony and supporting documents supplied by witnesses.

Committee Action - Prints, Reports, and Documents

Most bills are automatically referred to a committee for research and consideration. Committee members may also ask researchers to prepare additional materials called Committee Prints. The committee votes on whether to recommend the bill and creates a Report explaining the reasons for supporting the bill. Documents are communications to Congress from the Executive branch.

Floor Action

Bills that are passed out of committee are brought before the House and Senate floors for debate.

The daily Congressional Record has four sections: proceedings of the House (H) and Senate (S), Extension of Remarks (E), and the Daily Digest (D). The Congressional Record contains not only speeches delivered on the floor but also statements and insertions not spoken from the floor.

Floor Vote

After a bill is debated a vote is taken. A bill must pass both houses of Congress before it can be sent to the President for consideration.

Presidential Action

If a bill passes both house of Congress it is sent to the President for his signature. The President has ten days to either sign or veto the bill. If the President does not act on the bill within ten days, it becomes law, unless Congress is not in session in which case it does not become law. The President may comment on the bill in a signing statement. Until the Reagan Administration most signing statements were purely ceremonial. However, every President since Reagan has used some presidential signing statements to exercise executive legislative power by qualifying how the administration will interpret and enforce the law as written and signed. Presidential signing statements have become significant documents in the policy process.

Laws

Once a bill has passed both houses of Congress and has been signed by the President it becomes a public law. At the conclusion of each session of Congress all of the public laws passed in that session are cumulated and bound together in order of their passage in the United States Statutes at Large. All of the current laws of the U.S. are arranged into 50 broad subject areas called "Titles," and codified in the United States Code.
Cited As:
Public Law - Pub.L. 105-145 (Public Law Congress # - Law #)
Statutes at Large - 110 Stat. 205 (Vol. # Stat. Page #)
United States Code or United States Code Service - 17 U.S.C. §107 or 17 U.S.C.S. §107 (Title # U.S.C. or U.S.C.S. Section #)

Private laws affect an individual, family, or small group. Private laws are enacted to assist citizens that have been injured by government programs or who are appealing an executive agency ruling such as deportation.

Regulations

"The rulemaking process is a set of formal procedures through which a statute adopted by the Congress and signed by the President is translated into specific written requirements to be carried out and enforced by the executive branch and independent agencies. These regulations are usually far more detailed and precise than the statutory provisions to which they are pursuant. The major instruments for transmitting rules and regulations to the public are the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations." (from Introduction to United States Government Information Sources, 1996, p. 169)
Cited As:
Federal Register – 67 Fed. Reg. 7073 (Vol. # Federal Register Page #)
Code of Federal Regulations - 21 C.F.R. § 1308 (Title # Code of Federal Regulations Section #)

Judicial Review

Federal policy relies on a constant give-and-take among the branches of government and is an amalgam of congressional enactment, administrative rulemaking, and judicial decisions. Often one cannot determine the meaning of a statute without referring to the court cases that have interpreted the law. Decisions of the appellate courts and higher courts are usually relied upon as precedent. The availability of published decisions tends to increase in ascending order through the federal court hierarchy (see below). Only selected decisions of district courts are readily available, but all Supreme Court decisions are reported (from Introduction to United States Government Information Sources, 1992, pp. 285-87).

Hierarchy of the Federal Court System

U.S. Supreme Court [hears appeals from]

• U.S. Courts of Appeals (12 Circuits), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, United States Court of Military Appeals [hears appeals from]
• 94 district courts, U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of International Trade, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals, Courts of Military Appeal

United States Supreme Court

Each decision of the Supreme Court is published as it is issued in the form of a slip decision. Slip decisions are bound together and published at the end of the term in the United States Reports.
Cited as:
United States Reports – 100 U.S. 300 (Vol. # U.S. Page #)

United States Courts of Appeals

The 12 federal appellate courts review decisions of the district courts within their circuits. The United States Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit has jurisdiction over Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The primary report channel for cases at the appellate court level is the Federal Reporter.
Cited As:
Federal Reporter, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd series - 204 F. 506, 987 F.2d 580, 272 F.3d 441 (Vol. # F., F.2d, F.3d Page #)

District Courts

The 94 district courts are the trial courts of the federal system. The Federal Reporter and the Federal Supplement report decisions of the district courts. Federal district court decisions, however, are published only selectively. Cases not published may be obtained by contacting the clerk of the appropriate court.
Cited As:
Federal Reporter, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd series - XXX F. XXX , 987 F.2d 580, 272 F.3d 441 (Vol. # F., F.2d, F.3d Page #)
Federal Supplement - 907 F.Supp. 1361 (Vol. # F.Supp. Page #)

Legislative Histories

Legislative histories comprise citations and the text of internal documents generated in the legislative process such as bills, hearings, reports, documents, and prints, as well as comments by the President upon signing the legislation or issuing a veto message (from Introduction to United States Government Information Sources, 1992, p.124).

Style Guides for Citing Federal Documents

Selected Research Tools