A statute provides the written process that transforms a bill from a static piece of legislation to action. Enacting a statute is more complicated than simply having the legislature vote on and approve it. Once a member of Congress introduces a bill, it is sent to various House and Senate committees and subcommittees, any of which may edit, add to, amend, or "kill" the bill at any point. Therefore, only a small fraction of the bills submitted for consideration are passed into law. If a bill passes through the committees, it will be presented for a floor debate and full vote of both houses of Congress. Then, it must be signed into law by the President. After they are voted on and signed into law, bills are then subject to interpretation and analysis by the judicial system regarding how they apply to specific legal problems and cases.
To prepare for this assignment:
- Review the assigned pages of in your course text, Principles of Legal Research. Focus on sources of and research methods for locating enacted federal legislation.
- Review Chapter 4 in your course text, Principles of Legal Research. Think about the legislative process and how to research pending legislation.
- Select a policy issue that interests you.
- Use the LexisNexis Academic database in the Walden library, and search for current statutes that may impact the policy issue you selected. Use the source United States Code Service - Titles 1 through 50, located in the Federal & State Codes section of the Legal tab.
- Access "The Library of Congress: THOMAS" website and search for current bills that may impact the policy issue you selected.
The assignment:
- Briefly describe the issue you selected.
- Describe two or three federal statutes that relate to the issue and explain how each does so.
- Describe one current legislative bill related to the issue, and explain how it might impact the law or policy related to the issue if passed. Be specific.