how do bills start

would someone explain to me how bills get started.does it take lots of money or just knowing the right people?is there bills in the past for training coon and rabbit dogs year round like n.h.thanks

Bills can be written by anyone. Doesn't take any money per se. Here's some info I copied and pasted from a couple of sources and added to...

Anyone can propose an idea for a bill to a legislator - Joe citizen, any corporation, professional association, special interest group etc. All bills must be sponsored by one or more legislators to be considered by the Legislature. So, in a nutshell, an actual congressman has to be the one to present it.

The bills then get "prepared" by staffers, ensure their legality, etc. After the draft legislation is prepared, the legislator (which again, is your congressman--representative, senator, etc.) reviews it and submits it for introduction to the clerk of the chamber (house or senate) of which he or she is a member.

Then, it usually goes to a committee study. Standing committees are committees that are comprised of prearranged delegates assigned to study bills on a particular matter or subject. In turn, the committee issues a report. (You've heard of the ways and means committee, etc.)


The committee recommends the following:

a “do pass” in its original form, or with amendment(s) offered by the committee, or as a committee substitute bill
the bill be rejected
or no recommendation at all

Some bills “die in committee”, meaning the committee did not have enough time to take up the issue or the committee members decided the bill should not be recommended to the full membership for action. This is basically what happened with LD1080 (the hound hunting trapping issue).

Once a bill is out of committee, the committee’s recommendation for that legislation is read on the floor of the House or Senate. The Rules Committee of each chamber then determines what bills will be considered and places them on the House or Senate calendar, which is a daily list of bills to be acted on in each chamber. The calendar of bills to be acted on is divided into bills on third reading, bills on second reading and bills on first reading.

There's alot more but this is how they "start".


You can go to:

http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/advancedsearch.asp

to search bills. I did preliminarily check and it only goes back to 2001. So, you'd most likely have to use another database to check if you wanted to go back further.

thank you very much for taking the time to explain this for me

You are most welcome.