Bill Introduction and Sponsorship

Only a member of Congress can introduce a bill. Presidents, agencies, interest groups, and constituents can draft legislation and ask members to introduce it, but a senator or representative must sponsor it. In the House, a member introduces a bill by placing it in the hopper, a wooden box at the side of the rostrum, while senators submit bills to the clerks at the presiding officer's desk or introduce them from the floor. Under the Origination Clause of the Constitution, bills for raising revenue must begin in the House.

Each bill is numbered in order of introduction, with H.R. for House bills and S. for Senate bills, and joint, concurrent, and simple resolutions have their own designations. The bill is then referred, on the advice of the Parliamentarian, to the committee or committees with jurisdiction over its subject. The sponsor is the member who introduces it, and other members may sign on as cosponsors to show support, either at introduction or later. Most bills are drafted with help from the nonpartisan Offices of Legislative Counsel in each chamber, and every bill's text and status are published on Congress.gov.

Members introduce more than 10,000 bills and resolutions in a typical two-year Congress, but only a few percent become law, and most are never taken up by a committee. Many are introduced to signal priorities to voters and interest groups, stake out positions, or start a debate, and their provisions may later be folded into larger bills. Supporters of the open system say any member should be able to put an idea before Congress, while critics say the volume of messaging bills obscures serious legislation and that real decisions are made by a small number of leaders.