Simply, legislative process means the steps required for a proposed bill to become a law, but the whole process includes much more than what happens in Congress. At the federal level in the United States, this process has six major steps. First, a written draft of the proposed law, called a bill, is sponsored by a member in one of the two houses of Congress—House or Senate—and recommended for consideration. The presiding officer of the house puts the bill on the agenda and assigns it to a standing, or permanent, committee for consideration.

The standing committees consider all bills and oversee government actions on specialized issue areas. In the House of Representatives, committees that deal with environmental issues include the Agriculture, National Security, Resources, Science, and Appropriations Committees. In the Senate, standing committees relating to the environment include Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Energy and...