What is the legislative process in Illinois?
With the First Session of the 95th General Assembly in full swing in Springfield, it is timely to revisit the general outline of the legislative process. At the time of this writing, the two chambers of the General Assembly (the Senate and the House of Representatives) have each passed a number of bills and sent them to the second chamber. A word on terminology: the reference to the “originating chamber” refers to the house where the bill was introduced and the term “second chamber” refers to the other house. A bill has to pass both houses in exactly the same form (right down to commas) to be presented to the Governor for signature. Note: Unlike Congress, where two similar bills may be separately passed by the House and the Senate and then combined into one bill in the conference committee, the rules of the Illinois General Assembly require that the same bill must go through both chambers before it can be presented to the Governor. Legislation proceeds through the process in this order
