Bill HR 137 Patient Safety and Health Care Whistleblower Protection Act of 1999. Introduced to the House. This bill can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/?c106:H,R,137
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:HR00137:!!!X
A summary of the bill can be found at
http://thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:HR00137:@@@D&summ2=m&
The legislative process by which a bill becomes law is as follows. A body of people get together information on a subject, in the case of HR 137, patient safety and health care whistleblower protection, a House bill, and they present it to a representative (How, 2003). The bill is introduces by the representative. The title of the bill is read and this constitutes the first reading. The speaker of the House then refers the bill to a standing committee. The committee then holds public meetings to receive testimony and to debate the bill. Committees may report the bill to the floor either with favorable recommendations, they may report a substitute bill, or they may recommend that the bill be referred to another committee. They may also reject the bill or take no action on it, and the chamber may discharge a bill from committee by a majority of the voters "elected and serving." A bill dies if it remains in committee at the end of a legislative session.
A second reading occurs if a bill is reported out of committee (How, 2003). The full chamber considers the committee's recommendations, debates the bill, and may offer amendments. On the third reading of the bill, bills are open for debate by the full chamber. At this stage, a bill may be tabled, postponed indefinitely, referred back to committee, or brought to a roll-call vote. Passage of a bill requires a "yes" vote from a majority of members elected and serving (normally 56 members in the House). A bill may be given immediate effect if two-thirds of the members serving support such a motion.
A bill can be proc...