Overview: the process by which bills become laws

CAIRO – 5 February 2018: The Egyptian House of Representatives has discussed and passed many bills recently; at the same time they approved others to come into effect. Egypt Today gives an overview of the process through which bills become laws.

Bills are often referred to as a primary legislation as they are proposals to make a new law in the form of document that summaries what is the reasoning behind the proposed law and what the proposed law actually is. The government or any member of the parliament can introduce a bill to the parliament.

If the government or any parliamentarian has a proposal for a bill, they must submit it to the Parliament to be discussed. Then, the parliament shall refer it to plenary session to be considered and voted on.

If it is approved, it is then sent either to a specialized committee in the parliament, based on the field that bill tackles, or to a joint committee, in case the bill tackles more than one fields to discuss and amend it as required.

Yet, if parliament rejects it from the beginning, it should provide a report about the reason. Furthermore, a bill that the chamber has rejected must not be reintroduced in the same legislative session.

If the specialized committee approves the bill, it starts discussing each article in it and introduces it to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee to consider and coordinate its articles before the specialized committee presents a report about it to a full chamber of the parliament to be discussed in the plenary session.

However, for the parliamentarians to introduce a bill to the parliament, 60 MPs should sign it before being sent to the parliament. But, if less than 10 members proposed the bill, the parliament refers it to Complaints and Proposals Committee not to specialized committee to prepare a report on it, and if it is approved, it is passed to the specialized committee.

The plenary session agrees it and refers it to the State council to revise it, then, send it again to the parliament. Once the parliament approves the bill after voting on it, the bill becomes a law.

“The House of Representatives informs the President of the Republic of every bill that has passed the chambers, so that the President can sign it into law within fifteen days of receipt. If the President of the Republic vetoes the bill, he returns it to the House of Representatives within thirty days of receipt. If he does not return the bill by that deadline, or if the House of Representatives overrides his veto by a two-thirds majority, the bill becomes law and is issued,” according to Article 104 in the constitution.

If the House fails to override the presidential veto, four months must pass from the date of the failed override vote before the bill may be reintroduced within the same legislative session.