Usually the first step in this process is a public hearing, where the committee members hear witnesses representing various viewpoints on the measure. Each committee makes public the date, place and subject of any hearing it conducts. The committee meetings
scheduled for today are available along with other House Schedules. Public announcements are also published in the Daily Digest portion of the Congressional Record. A transcript of the testimony taken at a hearing is made available for inspection in the committee office, and frequently the complete transcript is printed and distributed by the committee. After hearings are completed, the bill is considered in
a session that is popularly known as the “mark-up” session. Members of the committee study the viewpoints presented in detail. Amendments may be offered to the bill, and the committee members vote to accept or reject these changes. This process can take place at either the subcommittee level or the full committee level, or at both. Hearings and markup sessions are status steps noted in the Legislative Action portion of
Bill Status. At the conclusion of deliberation, a vote of committee or subcommittee members is taken to determine what action to take on the measure. It can be reported, with or without amendment, or tabled, which means no further action on it will occur. If the committee has approved extensive amendments, they may decide to
report a new bill incorporating all the amendments. This is known as a “clean bill”, which will have a new number. Votes in committee can be found in Committee Votes. If the committee votes to report a bill, the Committee Report is written. This report describes the purpose and scope of the measure and the reasons for recommended approval. House Report numbers are prefixed with “H.Rpt.” and then a number
indicating the Congress [currently 107]. For more information on bills and resolutions see Consideration by Committee in How Our Laws Are Made.Consideration by Committee
Public Hearings and Markup Sessions
Committee Action
Types of Markup in Bills Amending Existing Statutes: State Legislatures
When a bill proposes amendments to existing law, state legislatures use several methods to delineate the changes. While strikethrough is often used to indicate language to be removed and underlining may show new language, several legislatures use other methods to show changes.
Please note that amendments made in committee may be different from the types of markups noted below.
The box allows you to conduct a full-text search or type the state name.
Alabama | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Alaska | New text underlined [deleted text bracketed]. | ||
Arizona | New language appears in UPPERCASE. Stricken language appears in lowercase with a line through it. | ||
Arkansas | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
California | Strikethrough in red denotes a deletion, blue italics denote an addition. | ||
Colorado | New language appears in UPPERCASE. Strikethrough denotes a deletion. [Shading denotes House amendment. Double underlining denotes Senate amendment. Capital letters indicate new material to be added to existing statute. Dashes through the words indicate deletions from existing statute.] | ||
Connecticut | Language to be deleted [including punctuation] should be enclosed in [bolded brackets.] Underline new language added to an existing regulation [including punctuation, numbers and unit designators; e.g., [a], [1], [A], [i]. | ||
Delaware | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Florida | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Georgia | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition | ||
Hawaii | All matter to be deleted is enclosed in [brackets and stricken], and any new matter added to the section or subsection is underscored. | ||
Idaho | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Illinois | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Indiana | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, bold denotes an addition. | ||
Iowa | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Kansas | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, italics denote an addition. | ||
Kentucky | [Bracketed strikethrough] denotes a deletion, bold underline denotes an addition. | ||
Louisiana | Words which are struck through are deletions from existing law; words in boldface type and underscored are additions. | ||
Maine | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Maryland | CAPITALS indicate matter added to existing law. [Brackets] indicate matter deleted from existing law. Underlining indicates amendments to bill. Strikeout indicates matter stricken from the bill by amendment or deleted from the law by amendment. | ||
Massachusetts | For amendments, section number and chapter are identified, followed by this text: “is hereby amended by inserting after the word” – the specific word in statute is put in quotes – “the following words” – the text being inserted is added. To denote stricken text, the following occurs: section number and chapter are identified, followed by this text: - “is hereby amended by striking out” - then the line number – then the text. | ||
Michigan | Language removed appears with strike-thru; new language appears in ALL CAPS; amendment text is color-coded dependent on chamber that offers the amendment. | ||
Minnesota | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Mississippi | Underline denotes an addition. | ||
Missouri | [Bracketed strikethrough] denotes a deletion, bold denotes an addition. | ||
Montana | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Nebraska | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Nevada | Matter in bolded blue italics is new; matter between brackets in red [omitted material] is material to be omitted. | ||
New Hampshire | Matter added to current law appears in bold italics. | ||
New Jersey | [Bold brackets] denote a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
New Mexico | [Bracketed strikethrough] denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
New York | Matter in italics [underscored] is new; matter in brackets[ ] is old law to be omitted. Editor’s Note: Bills online appear to be in a courier type using bold green underscored text rather than italics. | ||
North Carolina | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
North Dakota | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Ohio | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Oklahoma | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Oregon | Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted. | ||
Pennsylvania | [Brackets] denote a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Rhode Island | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
South Carolina | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
South Dakota | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Tennessee | Full text additions and deletions. For example: "Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 00-00-000, is amended by deleting subsection [0] in its entirety and substituting the following:" This would be followed by the new text. | ||
Texas | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | All bills that pass out of committee must indicate insertions through underlining and deletions through [bracketing]. | |
Utah | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Vermont | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Virginia | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, italics denote an addition. | ||
Washington | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
West Virginia | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Wisconsin | Strikethrough denotes a deletion, underline denotes an addition. | ||
Wyoming | Blue strikethrough denotes a deletion, red underline denotes an addition. |