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=Introduction= The purpose of this project is to help you gain a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the legislative process. All of you can rattle off the various steps a bill must go through to become a law, but those steps only provide us with the bare outline of what really occurs on Capitol Hill. They do not illuminate the role of politics in the process, the power of the Speaker of the House or the House Rules Committee, or the advantages held by the majority party. By taking part in the process yourselves, by visiting the Senate and the House in Washington, D.C., and by talking with various elected representatives, you will be challenged to not simply learn how a bill becomes a law but also to evaluate the process.Our guiding questions throughout this project are: **how does the national legislature (Congress) turn public concerns into public policy? Is this process reflective of the principles which underlie our Constitution?** Keep those questions in mind as we move through the next couple of weeks.

=Requirements:=
 * Preliminary: Senate Profile | Representative Profile: Defining your persona (20%)
 * Part I: The Research Phase: Researching your bill (30%)
 * Part II: The Writing Phase: Drafting your bill (20%)
 * Part III: The Committee Phase: Marking up legislation (10%)
 * Part IV: Floor Debate: Debating legislation (10%)
 * Part V: Works Cited: Citing your sources and footnoting (10%)

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