A bill’s stage is a procedural fact: it says which steps a measure has completed, not how likely it is to finish. This guide walks each stage against the rule or statute that defines it, and ends with what the stage shown on a LegislationPatch bill card is and is not.

The Congressional Research Service states the caveat up front: "the process by which a bill can become law is rarely predictable and can vary significantly from bill to bill. In fact, for many bills, the process will not follow the sequence of congressional stages that are often understood to make up the legislative process."

Stage 1: Introduced

CRS describes introduction plainly: "In the House, a bill is introduced when it is submitted electronically or dropped in the hopper (a wooden box on the House floor). In the Senate, the bill is submitted to clerks on the Senate floor." Two methods, both current.

On introduction the measure takes a designation from its chamber and form — H.R. or H.J.Res. for a House bill or House joint resolution, S. or S.J.Res. in the Senate — and is "typically referred to the committee (or committees) in that chamber with jurisdiction over its elements."

What the stage establishes: that a measure exists, is numbered, and has a sponsor. It commits no floor time and no committee attention. In the House a bill may be referred to more than one committee, in which case "one of those committees will be designated the primary committee of jurisdiction and will likely take the lead on any action that may occur." In the Senate, "in almost all cases, the bill is referred to only the committee with jurisdiction over the issue that predominates in the bill," and "in a limited number of cases, a bill might not be referred to committee, but instead be placed directly on the Senate Calendar of Business through a series of procedural steps on the floor."

Stage 2: In Committee

After referral the bill waits on the committee. CRS states the constraint that governs everything else at this stage: "Each committee receives many bill referrals over the course of a Congress—far more than the panel is capable of pursuing in any detail. The committee’s chair has the chief agenda-setting authority for the committee." Committees "do not formally consider each of these referred bills."

What the stage establishes: that the measure is waiting on a decision that belongs to the chair. It does not establish that the bill is finished. The House has two routes that reach the floor without a committee reporting a bill: a discharge petition signed by a majority of the total membership of the House, and suspension of the rules, under which CRS notes "there is no requirement that a bill must be reported from committee before the House can consider it under suspension."

What comes next, procedurally: a committee "may conduct hearings on a bill to provide committee members and the public an opportunity to hear from selected parties (e.g., a federal agency or organized interest) about the bill’s strengths and weaknesses." If it wants to send the bill onward, "it will hold a markup on the bill, at which committee members vote on any proposed amendments."

Stage 3: Reported by Committee

A markup "concludes when the committee agrees, by majority vote, to report the bill (with any recommended changes adopted in the markup) to its chamber." Once a committee reports a bill "it is often accompanied by a committee report, a document that explains the provisions in the bill and any changes recommended by the committee," and the bill "is placed on one of the respective chambers’ calendars." CRS is careful about what that does and does not mean: "These calendars are essentially a list of bills eligible for floor consideration; however, the bills on the calendars are not guaranteed floor consideration. Many will never be brought up on the floor during the course of a two-year Congress."

What the stage establishes: that a majority of one committee voted to send the measure to the floor. Floor time is a separate decision made elsewhere: "In the House, majority party leaders generally decide which bills will receive floor consideration; typically, they schedule a bill for a type of streamlined floor consideration, or instead ask the Rules Committee to propose a set of tailored parameters for floor consideration. In the Senate, bills are brought to the floor only after the Senate agrees to a motion (typically offered by the majority leader) to proceed to a specific bill or, alternatively, if no Senator objects to a unanimous consent request to bring it up."

A special rule from the Rules Committee is therefore one route to the House floor, not the only one. CRS records that "in the House, most bills that receive consideration do so under a procedure called ‘suspension of the rules,’ which limits debate to 40 minutes and prohibits floor amendments, but requires two-thirds of Members voting to agree," and that the rest are "considered under tailored debate and amending parameters set by the terms of a special rule reported by the House Rules Committee (which often operates as an arm of the majority party leadership)."

Stage 4: Passed One Chamber

The measure has cleared a floor vote in one chamber and goes to the other, where referral and scheduling start again. Under 1 U.S.C. 106, when a bill "passes either House" it is printed, "and such printed copy shall be called the engrossed bill"; that engrossed bill "shall be signed by the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate, and shall be sent to the other House."

What the stage establishes: that one chamber’s majority has agreed to a specific text. What the other chamber does is genuinely open. CRS: "One chamber frequently agrees to a bill—without changes—that was sent to it by the other, but sometimes a chamber proposes changes to a bill sent to it by the other."

If the second chamber changes the text, the two resolve the difference either through "a back-and-forth trading of alternative proposals (called amendments between the houses)" — also called amendment exchange, or ping-pong — "or by convening an ad hoc conference committee in which Representatives and Senators from the relevant committees are appointed to hammer out a compromise called a conference report." That is resolving differences between the chambers, which shares no machinery with budget reconciliation despite the loose everyday use of the same word.

Stage 5: Passed Both Chambers

Both chambers have agreed to identical text. The bill "is enrolled—that is, prepared in its final official form and then presented to the President." Under 1 U.S.C. 106 the enrolled bill "shall be signed by the presiding officers of both Houses and sent to the President of the United States." Under 1 U.S.C. 107, enrolled bills "shall be printed on parchment or paper of suitable quality as shall be determined by the Joint Committee on Printing" — parchment is one of two options the statute allows, not a requirement. Congress has also repeatedly waived both sections outright. The waiver enacted on October 27, 1990 covers "any reconciliation bill, appropriation bill, or continuing resolution of the One Hundred First Congress", sends those to the President as a hand enrollment that "shall be in such form as the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives certifies to be a true enrollment," and then has the Clerk of the House "prepare a printed enrollment of the bill or joint resolution as in the case of a bill or joint resolution to which sections 106 and 107 of title 1, United States Code, apply" once it is enacted. A waiver enacted on November 20, 1995 reached "A debt limit extension measure" as well; there the certifying body is named as the Committee on House Oversight. The U.S. Code files the whole run of them under the heading "Printed Enrollments Prepared After Enactment."

What the stage establishes: that the only remaining step is presentment. It does not establish enactment. The remaining failure mode is a veto, and CRS notes that "successful overrides of presidential vetoes are rare, so Congress typically must accommodate the President’s position earlier in the process."

Stage 6: Presidential Action

Article I, Section 7 sets out every option. If the President approves a bill "he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated." A returned bill becomes law only if two-thirds of each chamber votes to pass it again — and the Constitution requires those particular votes to be recorded: "in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively."

Inaction has two different results, depending on what Congress is doing. "If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law." That last clause is the pocket veto: the same inaction, the opposite outcome, turning on whether the adjournment prevented the bill's return.

Stage 7: Signed Into Law

The measure is a public law and takes a public law number. The highest one issued so far in the 119th Congress is Public Law 119-102, the Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025, enacted July 12, 2026. When its provisions take effect is a question for the text of the law itself.

Stage 8: Dead

A measure not enacted during the Congress in which it was introduced does not carry over. CRS: "Bills and joint resolutions may become law if enacted during the two-year Congress in which they were introduced." The 119th Congress ends when the terms of its members end, which the Twentieth Amendment fixes for Senators and Representatives "at noon on the 3d day of January." Pursuing the same policy afterwards means introducing a new bill in the new Congress.

The stage shown on a LegislationPatch bill card

Every bill in our database shows its current stage, derived from the passage markers in the action history Congress.gov publishes for that bill, and a date. The date is the most recent action Congress.gov records for the bill, not the date the stage was reached. Our refresh script bumps it on any new activity, including housekeeping actions that move no stage, because it is also the key the bill list sorts on. There is also a passage likelihood percentage.

The likelihood number is a judgment, not a calculation. Our methodology page sets out what the drafting rules allow it to rest on: the current chamber majority, the sponsor’s party, the co-sponsor count, and which specific provisions will attract opposition and from whom. No stage triggers a fixed percentage. Two bills in our database carry recorded passage votes in both chambers and have not been signed into law; they show 93% and 85%. Of the 68 bills we record as signed into law, two show 90% and 92% rather than 100%. The number records the assessment made when the bill was analysed, not a rule applied to its stage afterwards.

The DEAD badge is narrower than the word suggests. It marks a bill our records show as having failed on the floor or been vetoed. It is not an end-of-Congress expiry: nothing in the pipeline retires a bill when a Congress ends, so a stalled bill keeps the last stage it actually reached.

Key Sources

Drafted from primary source documents by LegislationPatch's automated research pipeline, then reviewed, verified, and edited by , Editor. Every figure and citation is checked against the official text before publication. See our editorial standards and AI disclosure.