The State Legislative Process: How a Bill Becomes a Law
A strong advocate knows exactly how, where, and when to apply pressure. Understanding the legislative process is key to that knowledge.
Filing a Bill
All bills to be considered in a two-year session are written and filed by the third Friday in January of the odd-numbered year. Most legislators spend the previous fall working with issue-experts, attorneys, and advocates to iron out the details of their policy proposals.
Many advocates work with legislators on the drafting process – it's a great opportunity to build a relationship with legislators, staff, and other like-minded advocates, and opens a window into how and why policy decisions are made.
After they’re filed, each bill gets assigned a docket number (e.g. SD1234 of HD1234). Browse or search for them on the Bills & Laws section of the MA state legislature website.
Once a bill is filed, advocates and chief sponsors try to get as many other legislators to sign-on as “co-sponsors” to their bill. Co-sponsoring is an important way for a legislator to express his or her support for a bill or an issue. After they co-sponsor, their name is listed on the bill itself. A high number of co-sponsors is a great way for a bill to get early visibility and momentum for the two-year session.
Advocates will contact legislators during this period and request that they co-sponsor a bill or set of bills.
Committee Review and Recommendation
All bills are ultimately referred to a Joint Standing Committee, which typically have 6 senators and 11 representatives, and are organized according to issue area (e.g. Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources or Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy). Every committee must hold a hearing on each bill it has been assigned.
These hearings are open to the public, and anyone can testify to the committee, either in writing, in person, or virtually. Keep an eye on the Joint Committee webpages to see when they schedule their hearings. They are broadcast live on the website, and archived on the Committee page, so you can watch the hearings after the fact.
After a hearing, committee members will work with their respective chairs on whether a bill should move forward from the committee, or not. The bills can still get additional co-sponsors during this time, but the targets for advocacy for this period are the Committee Chairs, and the rank-and-file members.
Ultimately, the chairs will schedule an electronic “poll” of the committee members for each bill. If a bill is recommended “ought to pass,” the committee decides which chamber to send the bill to first—the House or Senate – and, they can suggest the bill be passed in its original form, adjust the bill with amendments, or offer an entirely new draft of the bill, which often combines it with other similar bills.
Often, a vote will be on an order to “study” a bill or set of bills. A “study order” is a procedure most often used to retain a bill in a committee indefinitely—no further action or forward progress would be expected.
Debate and Voting in the House and Senate
If a bill makes it out of a Joint Committee, its next stop is in a House-only or Senate-only Committee, often Ways & Means. If a bill is in a new committee, the new targets are the Chair and rank-and-file members of that committee. While a bill can’t be “co-sponsored” at this time, members will often lobby their respective Ways & Means Chairs, so advocates will often push on rank-and-file members to weigh in at this stage as well.
Ways & Means, as well as other secondary-referral committees, deal with hundreds of bills on all subject-matters, and most bills get stopped at this point. However, a favorable report from a second committee is typically the final step before getting sent to the floor for debate and vote by the whole body.
Advocates can reach out to their own representative and Senators during this time to ask them to support this bill and advocate for it with their colleagues.
Because of wide supermajorities in both the House and Senate, leadership’s decision to bring a bill to the floor in the first place will almost always result in the bill passing that respective branch. However, there is always a time for debate on the floor or the House or Senate, and in most cases, there is an opportunity to offer amendments to the text itself.
Each bill has its own webpage where proposed floor amendments are listed, and debate is broadcast live on the malegislature.gov website. It’s crucial to follow amendments and debate, and advocates work hard and lobby all members to garner support or opposition for amendments that strengthen or weaken a bill. Typically, the time between a vote being scheduled, amendments being filed, and debate and votes being held is less than a week, so this part of the process moves very quickly.
If a bill passes the House or the Senate, it gets transmitted to the other side, where it is typically referred to another secondary Committee (again, typically Ways & Means), and the process re-starts there.
Final Passage and Governor’s Action
If both the House & Senate pass different versions of the same bill, a “Conference Committee”, is appointed to sort out the differences. A Conference Committee is a temporary group of three representatives and three senators. In practice, the report produced by this committee is nearly always approved by the House and Senate. Conference committee members are lobbied vigorously on the content of the final version of the bill.
Finally, the bill proceeds to an enactment vote by the House and Senate, confirming the exact language that will become law as agreed upon by both chambers. This vote completes the bill’s path through the legislature and sends it to the governor, who can sign it, veto it, or send it back to the legislature with amendments.
This is a final opportunity to advocate for the bill by asking the governor to sign it into law or veto it to return it back to the legislature.
Role of Advocacy
Throughout the process, your advocacy plays a vital role in influencing legislators and shaping the outcome of bills. You can:
- Contact your legislators at every stage to express support.
- Participate in hearings and submit written comments.
- Work with organizations like Mass Audubon to raise awareness and mobilize your community.
Become a Grassroots Advocate
Mass Audubon’s Climate and Nature Champions is a grassroots advocacy program that mobilizes individuals across Massachusetts to speak with one voice on the most pressing environmental issues of our time.