The first step to lawmaking is introducing a bill. Only a member of Congress can actually sponsor a bill, although inspiration for legislation can come from many different sources — the president, a lobbyist or interest group, a concerned citizen, or a constituency group in the district. Occasionally, members of the minority party will introduce legislation that they know has little chance of passing for the simple purpose of framing a policy position or scoring political points with the electorate.

Sometimes a member will draw from personal experience. Such was the case for former senator Strom Thurmond, who sponsored a bill requiring liquor companies to include warning labels in their print and broadcast advertising after his daughter was killed by a drunk driver. Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole helped establish National Men's Health Week after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In most cases, the names of the sponsoring legislators are used as the informal name of the legislation, such as Gramm-Rudman-Hollings (for the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985), Sarbanes-Oxley (for the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002), and perhaps most famously, McCain-Feingold (for the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2001).

Building Support

As former House majority leader Dick Armey put it, anyone can introduce a piece of legislation — the real challenge is to make something happen with it. An overwhelming majority of the bills introduced in Congress never even make it out of committee, let alone get enacted into law.

Often, the sponsoring legislator will seek out fellow lawmakers to cosponsor his or her legislation as a way to demonstrate a broad base of support. Members send out “dear colleague” letters to inform fellow legislators of the contents of their bills, and solicit support and cosponsors. It's not unusual for a bill to have upward of 100 cosponsors.

On particularly high-profile bills, lawmakers will sometimes seek out members of the opposite party to cosponsor their legislation. Senate Republicans did just that in 2001, when Democrat Zell Miller of Georgia cosponsored President George W. Bush's landmark tax reform bill, which was ultimately enacted into law. President Bush used a similar tactic with Democratic senator Ted Kennedy to help pass the education reform bill that same year.

Drafting Legislation

Although only members of Congress can introduce legislation, anyone can draft it. Most of the time, Congressional staff drafts legislation, though it's not uncommon for interest groups, activists, or the executive branch to put the words on paper. Many members take advantage of the attorneys and expert drafters at the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Counsel to help craft bills and amendments. Over the years, the length of bills has dramatically increased, while the number of bills has sharply decreased.