Bills & Legislation

Every law in A House Divided starts as a bill drafted by a sitting legislator. Bills must survive votes in both legislative chambers and then either be signed by the executive or lapse to automatic signature. This page explains how that process works from start to finish.

Who Can Propose Bills

Admins can propose bills from any country at any time and are exempt from influence costs.

Bill Structure

Every bill requires:

• A category — economy, healthcare, education, infrastructure, environment, public safety, social, defense, or foreign policy. The category controls which legislation types can appear as provisions.
• One to five provisions — each provision is a legislation type (e.g., "Minimum Wage", "Income Tax") paired with a policy option that defines its ideological direction.

Provision Costs

Adding provisions beyond the first costs national influence:

Your national influence balance is shown in the bill proposal form before you submit.

Policy Options and the Dual-Axis Grid

Each legislation type has policy options ranked on two axes:

• Economic axis — negative = left (more spending/redistribution), positive = right (less spending/free market)
• Social axis — negative = progressive, positive = conservative

US tax types use an 11-bracket scale (indices 0–10). All other types use a 7-option scale (3 left, 1 center, 3 right). The option you select determines what happens to national metrics when the bill is signed.

The Bill Lifecycle

Bills move through a strict status pipeline managed automatically by the turn processor each hour.

Step 1: Proposal

Submit the bill from the Congress or Parliament page. On submission, the bill immediately enters active status with a 24-hour voting window. There is no action cost to propose — only the influence costs for extra provisions.

Step 2: Origin Chamber Vote

While active, all members of the origin chamber can vote For, Against, or Abstain. Votes can be changed any time during the 24-hour window. The result is a simple majority — For must exceed Against. Abstentions are neutral.

Tie-breaker: In the US Senate, the Vice President breaks ties.

Step 3: Second Chamber

If the origin chamber passes, the bill opens for a fresh 24-hour vote in the second chamber. Same rules apply.

Step 4: Executive Action

Once both chambers have passed, the bill is enrolled. The president or PM has 10 hours to sign or veto. If no action is taken within 10 hours, the bill is automatically signed (pocket signature).

Only the character currently holding the executive office can see the Sign / Veto buttons.

How NPPs Vote

Non-Player Politicians (NPPs) vote on every bill automatically. Silence is not permitted — abstention is the minimum participation.

• Abstain chance: max(5%, (1 − loyalty) × 30% − ambition × 5%). High-loyalty NPPs abstain at most 5% of the time.
• Support chance: 55–65% based on loyalty, reflecting that bills reaching a floor vote already have majority support baked in.
• NPP blocs holding multiple seats contribute their full seatsHeld weight.
• A catch-up run every turn ensures NPPs that gained seats after a bill opened still vote before it closes.

What Happens When a Bill Is Signed

Metric Effects

Each provision applies its policy effects to state or national metrics. Federal US bills divide their effect by 50 (one per state); UK national bills divide by 12 (one per region). Effects apply each turn the policy is active through the policyOptions[].metricEffects mechanism — see Policy Effects for the full math.

Archetype Approval for Legislators

Legislators who voted For the enacted bill receive demographic archetype approval changes based on how far the policy shifted on each axis:

• impact = shift × affinity × 0.15, clamped to ±10 per bill
• A bill moving education policy two steps rightward gives evangelicals (affinity +35) roughly +10 approval and public-sector archetypes (affinity −40) roughly −10 approval.

Bicameral Strategy

Building Votes

You need majorities in both chambers plus executive support. Strategies:

1. Whip allies before the vote. Use whip directives to push your party's members. See Voting & Whips.
2. Propose in your stronger chamber first. If you have a House majority but shaky Senate support, introduce in the House so momentum builds before the Senate vote.
3. Keep provisions focused. Each extra provision adds national influence cost and gives opponents more to vote against. A narrow one-provision bill is easier to pass than a five-provision omnibus.

Parliamentary Differences

In UK and JP, the lower chamber (Commons or Shūgiin) does most of the legislative work. The upper chambers (Lords, Sangiin) can also vote on bills. If the government is in pending status (no PM seated), legislation is fully frozen — no new bills can be proposed and active bills stay in place until the freeze lifts.

Viewing Bills

Every bill has a detail page at /congress/bills/[id] showing:

• A timeline stepper from proposal through enactment
• Live vote bars (For / Against / Abstain percentages) for both chambers
• A live countdown timer while voting is open
• The presidential action panel (Sign / Veto), visible only to the executive

Related Pages

• Voting & Whips — Whip directives, how party discipline works, how to influence NPP votes
• Policy Effects — How signed bills change national and state metrics each turn
• Congress Leadership — Speaker, floor leaders, how leadership shapes the legislative agenda
• Committees — Committee assignments and their future role in bill flow
• Government Formation — Parliamentary government status and the legislation freeze