How a Law Is Made

The short answer. Very little of the law you live under was passed as a bill. A legislature writes a broad law, an agency writes the detailed rule that actually binds you, and the public gets a comment period on that rule before it takes effect. The bill is the part everybody watches. The rule is the part that decides what your employer must do, what your landlord must disclose and how your benefit is calculated.

The version of this taught in school stops at the bill. A bill is introduced, it goes to committee, it passes both chambers, the President signs it. That is accurate and it is about a third of the story.

Here is the arithmetic that shows the rest. In the 118th Congress, covering 2023 and 2024, 19,315 bills and resolutions were introduced. About three percent became law in any form. Over the same period federal agencies issued thousands of binding rules, every one of them legally required to take public comment first, most of them receiving almost none.

Track One: How a Bill Becomes a Law

Introduction. Any member can introduce a bill. It costs nothing and means little on its own.
Committee. The bill is referred to a committee, and this is where the overwhelming majority of bills die. Not by a vote against them. By never being scheduled for a hearing at all. The committee chair controls the calendar, which makes the chair the most important person in the process.
Markup. If it is scheduled, the committee amends it line by line and votes it out or kills it.
Floor. Leadership decides whether it gets floor time. In the Senate, most legislation needs 60 votes to end debate before it can get a simple majority vote on passage, which is why a bill with clear majority support can still fail.
The other chamber. The whole process repeats. Both chambers must pass identical text, which often means a conference or a round of amendments passed back and forth.
The President. Sign, veto, or let it become law without a signature. A veto can be overridden by two-thirds of both chambers, which almost never happens.

Two practical conclusions. The moment to be heard is at committee, not at final passage, because by final passage the outcome is settled. And the person to identify is the chair of the committee the bill sits in, not only your own member.

In your state, the shape is the same

State legislatures follow the same sequence with two differences worth knowing. Many are part time, meeting a few months a year, and four states hold regular sessions only every other year. And in a part-time legislature with small districts, members frequently read their own mail, which makes them the most reachable elected officials in the country.

About half the states also allow citizen initiatives or referendums, where a petition puts a measure directly on the ballot and voters make law without the legislature. The rules for qualifying one differ sharply by state.

Track Two: How a Rule Gets Made, Which Matters More

Congress passes a law that says something broad, for example that a workplace must be free of recognized hazards, or that a lender must disclose the true cost of credit. It then directs an agency to write the specifics. Those specifics are the regulation, and a regulation carries the force of law.

Under the Administrative Procedure Act at 5 U.S.C. 553, the agency generally has to do three things.

Publish the proposed rule in the Federal Register, with its reasoning.
Open a comment period, usually 30 to 60 days, during which any person may submit anything.
Respond to the significant comments in the final rule, explaining what it accepted, what it rejected and why.

That third step is the one people do not believe until they see it. Agencies write long responses to substantive comments because failing to do so is grounds for a court to vacate the rule. The comments and the responses become the administrative record a judge later reviews.

Which means a comment is not a suggestion box. It is a document the government has a legal obligation to engage with.

What makes a comment count

Be specific about the provision. Cite the section number you are addressing.
Bring facts the agency does not have. Your own experience, your own numbers, what happens in your industry or your neighborhood. Agencies are data hungry and short on ground truth.
Say what you want changed and why. Not that the rule is bad. That paragraph (c)(2) will produce this result for these people, and here is an alternative.
Do not send a form letter. Agencies count them and weigh them as one position with many signatures. An individual comment is treated as its own object.

The full walkthrough of submitting a comment

Your state does this too

Every state has its own version, usually a state register of proposed rules and a state administrative procedure act. State agencies set rules on licensing, insurance, health facilities, schools and the environment. The comment volume is even lower than the federal version, and almost nobody outside of industry watches.

Law, Rule, Executive Order, Policy

These four get used interchangeably in conversation and they are not the same thing at all. Telling them apart tells you who to talk to and how fast something can change.

Type	Who makes it	Can the public weigh in	How fast it changes
Law or statute	An elected legislature, signed by an executive	Yes, at committee hearings and through your members	Slowly, often years
Rule or regulation	An agency, under authority a law gave it	Yes, by law, during the comment period	Months to a couple of years
Executive order	A president or governor, directing their own branch	No formal comment step	Immediately, and reversible by the next executive
Agency policy or guidance	Department staff	Often no formal step, but staff will usually talk to you	Fastest of all

An executive order cannot create authority that a statute did not give. It directs how the executive branch uses authority it already has, which is why orders get challenged in court and why the next administration can undo them with a signature.

Agency policy is the underrated one. A great many frustrations people have with government are not law or regulation at all. They are a department’s internal practice: what a form requires, how long a queue runs, whether an office takes walk ins. Those change with a phone call and a supervisor far more often than people try.

How to Follow Something You Care About

Federal bills. congress.gov carries text, sponsors, committee assignment and status, and you can track a bill.
Federal rules. regulations.gov lists proposed rules and open comment periods. You can search by agency or topic and set alerts.
State bills. Every state legislature publishes text, committee schedules and hearing notices online.
State rules. Look for your state register or bulletin of proposed rules. It exists in every state and almost nobody reads it.
Local ordinances. City and county agendas, posted in advance under your state open meetings law.

What changes for you

Knowing the difference between a law and a rule tells you whether to write to a legislator or to file a comment, and those are different actions with different odds. Knowing that most of what binds you was written by an agency, in public, with a comment window almost nobody used, means there is a lever available to you that costs an hour and no money. And knowing that a great deal of what feels like an immovable rule is actually a department’s internal practice means the next time you are told “that is our policy,” the correct question is who set it and can I talk to them.

What This Does Not Mean

It does not mean rulemaking is undemocratic. It is the ordinary statutory process for making detailed law, it has been for eighty years, and the comment requirement exists precisely so that it is not a closed process.

It does not mean a comment wins. Agencies routinely reject positions they disagree with. What they cannot do is ignore a substantive comment silently.

It does not mean every rule has a comment period. There are exceptions for interpretive rules, procedural rules and genuine emergencies. Those exceptions get litigated, which tells you they matter.

Common Questions About How Laws Are Made

What is the difference between a law, a regulation and an ordinance?

A law, also called a statute or an act, is passed by a legislature: Congress or your state legislature. A regulation, also called a rule, is written by an executive agency under authority a statute gave it, and it carries legal force. An ordinance is passed by a local body such as a city council or county board. All three can bind you, and only the first is what most people picture when they hear the word law.

Which one affects me most?

Ordinances and regulations, in volume. Congress passes a few hundred laws in a two-year period. Federal agencies issue thousands of rules, and your city and county pass ordinances on parking, zoning, noise, permits, licensing and taxes that you meet far more often than any act of Congress.

Who enforces each of these?

Statutes are enforced by prosecutors and by agencies. Regulations are enforced by the agency that wrote them, usually through inspections, penalties and orders. Ordinances are enforced by local police, code enforcement and municipal courts. Disputes at every level end up in a court.

Can I see a law before it passes?

Yes, at every level, and this is the single most underused fact in American civic life. Federal bills are published in full on congress.gov the moment they are introduced. State bills appear on your legislature’s site. Local ordinances appear on a published agenda days before the vote. Nothing is hidden. It is simply not delivered to you.

How do I comment on a proposed federal regulation?

Federal agencies must publish proposed rules, accept public comment and respond to significant comments before finalizing. Comments are filed online and become part of the public record. A specific, factual comment from someone the rule would actually affect carries real weight, and comment periods frequently close with very few substantive responses.

What does it mean when a law is struck down?

A court has found it conflicts with a higher authority, usually a constitution, and will not enforce it. The legislature can respond by rewriting the law to fix the conflict, and often does. Being struck down ends a particular law, not the subject.

How do I find the laws that apply where I live?

Federal statutes are collected in the United States Code and federal rules in the Code of Federal Regulations, both online at no charge. Your state publishes its code the same way. Your municipality publishes its ordinances, usually as a searchable municipal code linked from the city or county website.

Keep Going

The full map: who decides what, at every level. The federal government. Your state government. How to comment on a rule.

Sources

Bills introduced and enacted in the 118th Congress, 2023 to 2024: GovTrack congressional statistics, 19,315 measures introduced with about three percent enacted in some form. Federal rulemaking, notice and comment, and the exceptions to it: Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553. Senate cloture at 60 votes and veto override at two-thirds of both chambers: Senate rules and Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. State legislative procedure, session frequency, and citizen initiative and referendum rules are set by state law and vary. Last checked August 20, 2026.