Chile

The legislative process in Chile is made up of institutions such as the executive branch (Government), in addition to the Chambers of Deputies and Senators, which make up the entities involved in the creation of a law, which in addition to national and regional institutions apply them in practice.

Bills may be initiated by the President of the Republic or by one of the members of the National Congress. In the latter case, a new law may be proposed by up to five senators or up to ten deputies.

The first chamber that studies the project is called the Chamber of Origin, while the other is called the Revision Chamber. In some cases, the President of the Republic must send his message to the corresponding Chamber if the constitution states that some laws can only be initiated in the Chamber of Deputies or Senators in a specific manner.

After the bill has been passed in the chamber of origin (where the legislation will be initiated), the commissions come into action. These commissions may be associated with various areas, such as Health, Education, or Housing, to cite a few examples. The commissions are made up of legislators who have some connection with these topics. Therefore, the degree of sectoriality or intersectorality of the resulting legislation, depends precisely on the quality of the connection between said themes.

Once the report written by the commission is presented, there are two possibilities: That it is approved or rejected in general or that it is approved or rejected in particular. The first scenario indicates that the idea of legislating on the subject is approved, but that one does not necessarily agree with the proposal. The second scenario indicates that every detail of the bill will be analyzed once the idea of legislating is approved. If it is rejected in general, it will have to wait a year to be re-introduced and voted on once again. If it is approved, it will go to the analysis in particular. For this purpose, the same commissions make another report with the indications to the project, the discussion it has generated, the modifications made to it, etc.

This new report is presented again to the Chamber, which must vote on the project in particular (point by point), giving way to the first Constitutional Procedure. If it is rejected, it is necessary to wait one more year to vote on it again. On the other hand, if it is finally approved, it will go to the reviewing chamber (that is, if the chamber of origin was the Chamber of Deputies, the reviewing chamber will be the Senate, to cite one example). Later on, the second constitutional procedure follows, which consists of the reviewing chamber receiving the project from the original chamber and seeing if it is approved or not, being able to do so without adding modifications, adding them, or rejecting the project.

If it is approved without modifications, the project is ready for the president to promulgate the law. If changes are made, it must be returned to the chamber of origin for review. And if the chamber of origin does not agree with the changes, it is passed to a new instance called the mixed commission, in which the differences that occurred between both chambers are resolved, and two scenarios can be passed: Reaching an agreement or not achieving it, being the project finally rejected.

If the project is finally approved, the president will not promulgate it into law, which will be done if the presidential veto is not applied, which would generate the return of the project to Congress in its totality or partially.