Legislation & Politics

• Guide to Lobbying
• Lobbying Do's & Don'ts
• 2007 Legislative Summary
• 2007 Legislative Review
• 2007 Legislative Positions
• 2006 Legislative Review
• 2006 Legislative Scorecard
• Blue-Green Alliance

How an Idea Becomes a Law in Minnesota

To be an effective lobbyist, you don’t need to be an expert in a subject area or know everything about the process of how an idea becomes a law.  It is helpful, however, to have a basic understanding of how the legislative process works so that you can determine how you can give your idea momentum.

Where do bills come from?

A bill is a proposal for a future legislative action.  All bills start with a good idea.  Sometimes those ideas come from legislators, but more often they come from business leaders, policy advocates, other politicians, and citizen-lobbyists just like you.  With a lot of hard work and dedication, anyone can come up with an idea and turn it into a law.

How does a bill get introduced?

Finding a House and Senate Author

The trick, however, is convincing legislators and the public that your idea is a good one. For starters, a lobbyist must convince a member of the House of Representatives and a member of the state Senate to author the idea. If the legislators like the idea, they will agree to introduce the idea as a bill and advocate for the passage of that bill through the legislative process.

Usually, two separate but identical bills are introduced – one in the House, and one in the Senate – and travel simultaneously through the legislative process in both bodies. These bills are commonly called “companions.”

The Sierra Club and our allies in the Transit Partners Coalition
have been persistent voices at the Minnesota Capitol for stable,
dedicated funding for increased transportation choices.
Photo by David J. Oakes, Minnesota Senate Media Services.

Preparing a Bill for Introduction

Some people think that you need to be a lawyer to draft and introduce a bill. But, the fact is that you don’t have to know a bunch of legalese to turn an idea into a law. All you need is a legislator that likes your idea. That legislator will then give you permission to work with legislative staff (often lawyers) whose job is to take your idea and put it into the proper form.

Once the legislative staff have consulted with you and everyone agrees that the language they drafted will carry out your idea, the language is then sent to the Office of the Revisor of Statutes (usually called the “Revisor’s office”). The Revisor’s office is responsible for creating the official version of a bill. All bills must be approved by the Revisor’s office before they can be introduced.

Jacketing the Bill

Once the bill language is sent to the Revisor’s office, the language goes through a process called “jacketing.” This means that the Revisor attaches a colored piece of paper to the back of the bill language – a green “jacket” for the House version of the bill, and a yellow jacket for the Senate version of the bill. These jackets are used to record important information about the bill as it moves through the legislative process (for example, the date of introduction, actions of committees, passage on the House and Senate floors, and signature of the Governor).

Identifying Co-Authors

Once the Revisor has produced the official version of the bill, the jackets are sent to the House and Senate authors for introduction. The authors will then sign the bill’s jacket to indicate their support. While it is possible to introduce a bill with only the signature of a single author, the bill’s authors and citizen-lobbyists may ask other co-authors to sign the bill jackets to indicate additional support. Usually, support for the idea is demonstrated by having House and Senate leaders (often committee chairs) from multiple parties sign onto a bill as co-authors. In the Senate, a bill can have up to five co-authors. In the House, there can be as many as 35 co-authors.

Placing the Bill in the “Hopper”

After the authors and co-authors have all signed the bill it is placed into the “hopper” by either the bill author or the citizen-lobbyists. The hopper is a term for several wire bins located in the State Capitol complex that serve as repositories for bill jackets that are intended for introduction. The term actually comes from colonial times, when most legislators were farmers, and a hopper was a temporary storage container for grain. Early legislators began using the term at the capitol, and it is still used today. Once the bill is placed in the hopper, it is ready to be introduced on the House or Senate Floor.