The process of how a bill becomes a law is a very complicated one with many steps to it. There are about 1500 bills presented to the legislature every session that try to get passed and either turned into law or on the ballot for the people to decide. Out of those 1500 bills only 200 to 350 make it through the actual process of going into law or on the ballot. A bill in order to become law or end up on the ballot has to pass through both chambers of the state legislature. It has to pass through the house and the senate. An “ideal” bill will go through both the house and the senate and come out with the same language. So let’s first look at the process of how an “ideal” bill becomes law.

The process of passing a bill through each chamber of the legislature is the same. The bill will start out in the House first. It has to obtain a sponsor. Either a prime sponsor – which is just one main person supporting it. Their first and last names are listed on the bill. Or there are also the co-sponsors. You could have many names listed on a bill as co-sponsors of it. Once is bill gets sponsored it is then “dropped.” If a bill is dropped it’s a good thing. Being dropped means it was assigned a legislature number to it. Like HB 2460 for example or HCR 2460 (which means it’s trying to get passed to be put on the ballot). Bill numbers are reused every year. So HB 2460 this year may be about renewable energy whereas last year it was about income tax.

Once a bill is assigned a number it is then heard in committees. The house has 15 committees and the Senate has 11 committees. The House of Representatives has 60 members at the state level and the Senate has 30 members. Committees change every year, and each chamber has a finite number of weeks to hear the bill. For example the House this year had from January until the end of this week to get all the bills they intend to pass through committees.

The Speaker of the House is in charge of assigning the bills to committees. A bill may never get pass this point if the Speaker of the House does not assign it. He can assign it to one committee or to many committees as well. Ideally you want your bill to be assigned to one committee, because if it’s assigned to multiple committees the process can take longer and it may not get heard in time. The bill also cannot be heard in the 2nd committee unless it was heard in the first committee. There is paper work that can be drawn up however by another committee. Say your bill is stuck in the first committee and they just do not seem interested in reading it, you can request for that bill to be “withdrawn” from the primary committee it was assigned to in order for it to be heard in your committee.

The Committee Chair has sole discretion as to what bills they put on the agenda to be heard. If the Committee Chair doesn’t like your bill & is not feeling enough pressure from constituents or other Representatives, that bill may never be heard. When a bill is in committee that is the ONLY time the public is given the opportunity to speak, and even then it is up to the committee chair as to who gets to speak and who does not. A bill can be amended as well in a committee. An amendment may be offered to a bill by any member of the committee.
There are four outcomes to a bill when it’s in committee:
- Do Pass (DP)
- Do Pass Amended (DPA)
- Failed (if there is a tie vote on a bill it is considered a fail as well)
- Held (meaning it was not heard or there is going to be testimony on it but it’s not going to be voted on)

After a bill passes through the committees it was assigned, it then goes onto the Rules Committee. All bills must go through the rules committee. The Committee Chair of the Rules Committee again has full discretion on what bills are heard or not. The Rules Committee job is to vote on if the bill is considered “Constitutional & Proper” (C&P). There is never any public testimony during Rules and bills can only be amended for form.

Once a bill passes through rules it goes onto what is called a “Caucus.” Both political parties have their own separate caucus’s (There was one independent Representative a few years back and they chose which Caucus to attend – there currently are no Independent Representatives or Senators in the Az Legislature). In the Caucus the bill is discussed and must be passed through BOTH caucuses in order to move forward. There is no public input in Caucuses however the public can attend them. Bills cannot be amended in Caucus either.

After a bill passes through both Caucuses, it then goes to COW (Committee of the Whole) which is where the full membership gathers as one big committee to discuss and vote on a bill. The leadership of the chambers have complete discretion on what does and does not get put on the COW Calendar. In COW, this is the last change for amendments to be added to the bill by that particular Chamber. COW is also where all prior amendments that were added to the bill get officially adopted. Even if an amendment was added in a prior committee, if it’s not approved in COW it’s not added to the final version of the bill. In COW what is known as a floor amendment can also be added to the bill. A floor amendment is unique in that it is not posted ahead of time. All other amendments are posted on the Az Legislature website 24 hours prior to being added to the bills. Floor Amendments are just added on the floor with no prior acknowledgment. During COW the votes are voiced and a roll call of who voted on what is only done if needed.

The last process of being passed through the House Chamber is called the “Third Read.” The Third Read is the official vote on the bill. All votes are done via voiced votes and no roll call is done. Leadership has again full discretion on what votes are heard or not. If a member is on the floor at the time the bill comes up to be voted on, they MUST place a vote. If they wish to note vote on the bill, they must leave the room before the official voting takes place. During the Third Read, members may explain their vote but there is no debate allowed. During the Third Read, there must be a majority vote to pass a bill (Which is 31 in the house, 16 in the Senate). There are some exceptions to that:
- If a bill has an Emergency Clause it requires a 2/3 vote (40/20) to pass because when the governor signs it, it goes into law right away
- If a bill is considered a “Prop 8” (which means it will bring more money to the general fund) – it also requires a 2/3 majority to pass
- If a bill is considered a “Prop 105” (which means they are trying to change something that had gone before the voters during a prior election) it requires a 3 / 4 (45/23) to pass.

The bill is going to repeat the same process in the Senate. Now again an “ideal” bill will come out of Senate in the same form it came out of the House. If that happens:
- If the bill is considered a “Concurrent Resolution” it will be sent to the Secretary of State (SOS) to be put on the ballot. Again these bills are the HCR or SCR bills.
- If it’s a regular bill, it will be sent to the governor who can do one of three things with it:
1) She can sign it
2) She can veto it
3) She can do nothing with it and after five business days the bill will become law without a signature from the Governor.
If the bill is vetoed it can still pass with an override of the House and Senate. It requires a 2/3 vote though of both chambers.

Now what happens though when the bill is not “ideal” and the House and Senate pass two different versions of the bill? There are two different options that can happen at this point. They can concur or refuse the bill. If they concur the bill – the Sponsor of the bill agrees with the 2nd chambers amendments, the bill is put up for a final vote & passed. If the bill is refused it means the Sponsor of the bill is disagreeing with the amendments put on it in the 2nd version. When this happens there needs to be a conference set up to go over the changes in the bill. There are two types of conferences that can be set up at this point:
- Simple Conference Chamber which consists of 3 members (2 from the majority and 1 from the minority). This type of conference is considered a “limited scope” conference which means only the items that are different in the two versions of the bill can be discussed and changed.
- Free Conference Chamber which also consists of 3 members (2 from the majority and 1 from the minority) is considered an unlimited scope conference. This means that anything can be changed in the bill.
If no agreement is made, the bill dies. If an agreement is made, the agreed upon version goes back to the chambers for a final vote.

The process of how a bill becomes a law is a very complex process and usually it’s only done within the course of 100 days. Sine Die which means the legislature is adjourning for the rest of the year unless there is a special session usually has a goal of 100 days. Meaning the legislatures normal sessions should be January through April. That rarely happens however. Last year for example, Sine Die was not announced until June 30th due to the budget battle. When Sine Dine is called, bills generally have 90 days until they are effective and become law unless of course they had an emergency clause on them.

If a bill fails, it can be reconsidered but only if a voting member who voted no on it makes a motion for the bill to be reconsidered. So if you know your bill is going to be voted down, you might just want to vote no on it so you can bring it back for reconsideration later on during the sessions.

The only way a bill can move through the process faster, is if it is put on the consent agenda. If it is put on that, the bill gets to bypass COW (which is the longest process). It can only be put on the consent agenda if it wasn’t amended at all during the prior process. The House has 3 days to take an item off of consent to be heard in COW and the Senate has 2 days.

One last thing that should be discussed when talking about how a bill becomes a law is the “strike everything amendment.” The Strike Everything Amendment is a way in which a member can get a bill that has already failed or didn’t make the deadline’s wording onto another bill. During committee, if a member wants to add a strike everything amendment onto a bill they must post notice within 24 hours before the committee meets. A strike everything amendment is very common but also something everyone should look out for. For example if there is a bill on an income tax issue and someone wants to strike everything from it they can strike the wording of the income tax issue and replace it with wording on putting in a Water Park in Mohave County.

That is how a bill becomes a law in Arizona.

Sarah Markham

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