As simply as possible, there are 3 ways in which a bill can become a law. Hopefully you remembered two of them—presidential signature, and overridden veto from your civics class(es). At any rate, the easiest way a bill becomes a law is that it is presented to the president, and signed by him. A pocket pass is actually the second-easiest way in which a bill becomes a law (just in terms of procedure). A pocket pass occurs when Congress presents the President with a bill, he does not act on it for 10 days, and Congress stays in session during that period. If all of that occurs, the bill becomes law without the President’s signature! Finally, a veto override—the most procedurally challenging of the bunch. A veto override occurs when Congress presents the President with a bill, the President vetoes the bill, and then BOTH chambers of Congress muster up a 2/3 supermajority vote to make the bill law without the consent of the President. This is, of course, insanely difficult. Most bills pass, colloquially speaking, by the skin of their teeth (that is, with a bare majority). In order to override the President’s veto, however, BOTH chambers have to cobble together a 2/3 supermajority—a daunting task. 

Bill amendments in the house must be germane to the material of the bill. That is one of the rules of the House of Representatives. Logically speaking, it makes sense—the House has 435 people in it, if everyone could introduce amendments over everything, there would be mass chaos. That said, there is not requirement for germane amendments in the Senate; Senators can introduce “riders” to bills—that is, amendments that have nothing to do with the bill at hand.

With one major exception, bills may begin in either chamber. The exception, of course, is revenue appropriations bills, which, per the Constitution, must begin in the House of Representatives (under the so-called “Origination Clause”). Don’t confuse the exclusive “powers” of the Senate with bill origination. In other words, only the Senate can confirm appointments or ratify treaties—the House has no jurisdiction over either of those things. But that is not what this question asks—this question refers exclusively to bills, which (other than the Origination Clause exception) may begin in either chamber.

Generally speaking, most committees have subcommittees which do most (if not all) of the work when it comes to editing, or making substantive changes to a bill. Provided that is in fact the case, the full committee may accept, reject, or amend the bill presented to them by the subcommittee. Generally speaking, the full committee will act with great deference to the subcommittee when considering what to do.

Although one could make an argument that both ‘editing’ and ‘drafting’ are correct—or at least, not wrong—‘mark up’ is the correct answer. Mark up is actually a term of art within Congress, and it refers to the work that a committee (or subcommittee) performs on a bill; it can be anything from simple editorial comments (grammatical corrections, for example) to very substantive changes to a bill.

The rather mundanely-named report is the most important document that accompanies a bill out of committee (or subcommittee) and onto the floor. The report contains a succinct list of the committee’s (or subcommittee) findings on the bill—it is, essentially, a crib sheet on the bill. It assists Congress members who have not worked on the bill, or even heard of the bill yet, to understand the bill and what it does without actually needing to read the bill.

This is a relatively tricky question. There is no Rules Committee in the Senate, which is what this question asks you about. There is only a Rules Committee in the House—if this question referred to the House, then Rules Committee would be the correct answer. But, since the question asks you about the Senate, none of these answers are correct—generally speaking, bills are considered under Unanimous Consent Agreements in the Senate.

This should have been a fairly simple question. The only body that can override a veto is Congress. The Supreme Court has nothing to do with vetoes (unless there were somehow a question of law involved in the veto of a bill). Remember: if the President vetoes a bill, Congress can override that veto by a supermajority (2/3 vote) in each chamber. Otherwise, the bill dies, and must start from the very beginning.

This should have been a somewhat expected question, and hopefully a relatively simple one at that. The answer choices presented to you are vastly oversimplified, as the real procedure is rather more convoluted. At any rate, the correct answer is: (1) a bill is introduced; (2) the bill is then assigned to a committee (and generally then to a subcommittee); (3) assuming that the bill makes it out of [sub]committee, then the Rules committee will create a rule under which the bill is to be considered; finally, the bill is brought forth to the floor for debate and consideration under the Rule and is voted on.

This is another tricky procedural question. While the House requires amendments to be germane to the matter at hand, the Senate does not. In other words, in the House, if you are discussing, say, a bill to save baby seals from clubbing, the House cannot entertain amendments dealing with zebras—the amendment must be relevant to the matter at hand. In the Senate, however, there is no such requirement; in other words, you can offer any amendment to any bill at any time.