How A Bill Becomes A Law - ABATE of Ohio

How A Bill Becomes A Law

how-a-bill-becomes-a-law

As you can see from this flowchart, getting a bill to become a law can be overwhelming process.

The first hurdle we normally face is getting a legislator to draft a bill for introduction.  Once that is done, the bill is given a number and the process begins.

There are many places in the process that a bill can just die and it does not become law, as indicated by the boxes that begin with an asterick (*).  It will also die if it is anywhere in the process but not yet signed into law if the General Assembly ends.

The 135th General Assembly began January 3rd, 2023 and ends December 31, 2024.  The General Assembly is divided into two annual regular sessions.  Bills introduced into the 1st session but not passed carry over to the second session.  Bills not passed into law by the end of the second session die and we have to start the process all over again with different legislators.

In the 134th General Assembly (2021 & 2022), there were 1,124 bills introduced and only 175 became law.

This flowchart was taken from "A Guidebook for Ohio Legislators" published by the Legislative Service Commission.  The entire Guidebook is available at lsc.ohio.gov.

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