hello everyone welcome to module four of the course so far in the course we have focused on the what and why of policy and advocacy including social workers roles in policy making and advocacy now we will begin learning more about the how more specifically how are policies made and what does it look like for social workers to be involved in that process we will learn more about the how of policy advocacy starting next week several weeks will be dedicated to walking you through how to plan and execute a policy advocacy strategy in your small group discussions before that though we need to gain a better understanding of how policies are made there are a few different levels of policy from organizational to Municipal State and all the way up to Federal each level of policy is important as they all have effects on people's lives policies shape our practice the way we interact and intervene with our clients and impact our clients lives in varying ways the policy making process is different on each of these levels but they all share the basic concepts of policy making examples of organizations include non-profit programs social service agencies in colleges and universities then there are policies at the town city and county levels for example policies related to land use schools building codes and road maintenance state and federal policies are more overarching and their processes are a bit more complicated than the organizational and Municipal policy making processes this lecture will focus specifically on the process of state level policy making each State's policy making process has slight differences but are more or less the same and are all similar to the federal process the state and federal governments all have two legislative Chambers the House and Senate that the bill has to pass through before getting to the governor on the state level or the president on the federal level hmm something seems off here there we go now you might better recognize the bill but something's still not quite right there we go that's better I will be using Maine as an example to go through the steps of how a bill becomes a law however it's identical to Connecticut's process as you can see in the recommended resource I shared in the learning material section of this module in husky CT these states processes are also very similar to the federal process as you'll see in the assigned chapter I also included a simplified image of the federal process under the recommended section of learning materials the policy making process is Complicated by Design these various steps each have rules and procedures within them and are used to prevent Hasty or uninformed decisions on matters that can affect the lives of every citizen I will be giving a very simplified summary of this process there are a lot of details that I will gloss over there are so many rules in fact that most legislators themselves do not even remember them all they rely on the various legislative staff whose job it is to ensure the rules or procedures are properly followed so here's an overview of the legislative process and I'll go through each of these 10 steps first before a bill becomes a law how does it even become a bill it all starts with an idea when a legislator decides to sponsor a bill oftentimes it is at the suggestion of someone else such as an organization an advocacy group or a constituent such as a social worker or perhaps their client legislators consider hundreds if not thousands of ideas for bills every year it is during this stage that the bill sponsor also finds co-sponsors for the bill to co-sponsor a bill basically means that they're adding their name as a supporter of that particular Bill they're willing to go up for bat for this bill and can be counted on to vote in favor of it later on in the legislative process a Bill's chances of Passage is often improved by having some having many co-sponsors especially when co-sponsors include members of both houses so representatives and Senators members of the Republican and Democratic parties are members of key legislative committees which we'll discuss more later next the sponsor of the bill presents the idea to various legislative offices whose staff draft up the bill they write it using the proper legislative language and formatting once a bill has been properly drafted the sponsor can then give it to one of two people if the sponsor is a house representative they will give the bill to the clerk of the house if the sponsor is a senator they will give it to the Secretary of the Senate it is the clerk and secretary's responsibility to do two things with this bill first they assign a number to the bill this is how the bill will be identified and referred to throughout the rest of the session rather than its long title second the clerk and secretary refer the bill to a particular legislative committee legislators are divided amongst various committees to serve on it is on these committees that they vote on whether or not a particular bill should become a law Maine has over 20 committees including for example criminal justice and public safety education and cultural Affairs and labor and housing whichever committee the bill is assigned to holds a public hearing for that bill it is during this hearing that anyone and everyone from the public is invited to come provide testimony on why they do or do not support this particular bill people usually know about the hearing in one of two ways they may be heavily involved in policy advocacy usually through a paid position and they check the schedule on the government website or get email alerts when hearings are scheduled or oftentimes Advocates organizations will share this information with people who this bill might be relevant to for example through social media or contacting a professional or client directly to come provide testimony about their their experiences and perspectives related to the bill once the committee holds this public hearing they hold a work session where they discuss the bill more in depth and maybe make some amendments to it then when they are ready they vote on whether or not the bill should pass if either all or some of the committee members vote that the bill ought to pass then it moves on to the next step depending on whether the Bill's sponsor is a representative or a senator the bill will be read on the floor of the house or Senate after this first reading all of the representatives or Senators vote for or against the passage of the bill if the bill is voted to pass during the first reading it moves on to the second reading which usually happens the next day which is just like the first reading but gives legislators a second chance to ask questions request amendments or change their vote if the bill passes through the second reading in the first chamber the house or the Senate it then repeats this process in the other chamber once all representatives and Senators vote on the bill and it passes through both Chambers it goes to the governor who has the power to either veto the bill or sign the bill into law or they might not sign it but it still becomes law depending on if legislation is still in session and that is how an idea becomes a law super easy and straightforward right just kidding remember you don't need to know you don't need to memorize this or know every little detail you just need to have a basic understanding the policy making process is intentionally designed to be complex this is what helps ensure legislators don't make any rash decisions that lead to laws being enacted that later have unintended consequences fortunately most people including social workers and elected officials don't need to know every nitty-gritty detail of the path of legislation but we as social workers and policy Advocates should have a basic understanding of the policy making process so we are able to track legislation in other words we need to know at what point in the process a bill is at as well as its next steps so we can effectively plan our advocacy efforts including who we want to Target and what our calls to action are to help you ground your learning A bit I'm going to go through the 10 steps again but this time using a concrete example