Photo: Hobvias Sudoneighm

Out of all the repetitive junk we were taught in school as kids, it is pretty interesting what actually stuck in my brain. One of the things I remember learning back in the day is that anyone can write a bill for Congress. This means you, despite never running for a political office in your life, have the opportunity to write laws for the United States of America.

Writing the Bill
Once you know the law you want to impose upon your fellow Americans, you have to put it down in writing. This is the easiest part of the process, and it isn’t exactly straightforward. Bills can contain hundreds of pages of lawyer language, making them very hard to understand for those who are not well versed in it. I don’t blame the members of Congress for not reading every single bill that comes to vote.

So the first step is familiarizing yourself with how similar bills are formatted and the language they use. Take a look at OpenCongress.org and imitate what you see – don’t worry, it’s not plagiarism. It is probably a good idea to have a lawyer take a look to change wording as necessary.

Introduction to Congress
This is where it starts to get difficult. Even though you wrote the bill, it must be formally introduced by a member of Congress. So the first step after writing the bill is to convince a Congressman to propose it.

Representatives are supposed to serve the will of his or her constituents, so hopefully this won’t be too hard. Check out this map to locate your Representative and find their contact information. If/when that doesn’t work you may have to get creative. Who would agree with the bill? Who is easily accessible? Who has a history of introducing bills rather than just voting?

Passing the Bill into Law
This is where the odds are stacked against you. As you are probably aware, bills are introduced in Congress, go to a committee, and then sometimes passed into law. A low 4% of bills introduced actually become laws. But it gets worse – most of these are not laws at all, but stupid things like renaming government buildings or recognizing professional athletic achievements. The pass rate is closer to 1% when you disregard all of the junk bills.

So how do you help it to pass? You get the word out and get people to stand up for it. Not only did you need to find someone to introduce it, but you also probably need bipartisan support. Find a congressman in both parties who will not only vote for it, but speak up and tell other members of the party. The more buzz the better – hit the TV and internet hard. Then pray.

Having never done it, that is all the advice I can give. But I’m interested in doing gaining some first hand experience, so do you have an idea that you’d like to see a law?