Chapter 10
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money for the state begins in the House of
Representatives. The bill is sent to groups
for discussion. The bill goes throughmany
steps before the final vote. A bill must be
passed by both the House and the Senate.
Just like our national government, a simple
majority vote is required for approval.
The executive leader of our nation is
called the President. The executive leader of
our state is called the
governor
. If the
governor likes the bill, he will sign it into
law. If he dislikes the bill, he will not sign
the bill. This is called a
veto
.
When the governor vetoes a bill, it is
sent back to the legislative branch to be
discussed again. This time, two out of three
senators and representatives must vote in
favor of the bill. When this happens, the
bill becomes a law. This is called overriding
the governor’s veto. These are the steps
each bill goes through to become law.
Our waterforms were becoming too
polluted. In 1970, the Clean Water Act was
passed. Its major goals were to clean up our
waterforms and to keep toxic wastes from
entering them. Today, Pennsylvaniahasmuch
cleaner water because of this law. Remember,
this act started out as a bill. This is a good
example of how a lawhelps the people.
State Executive
Branch
O
ur state executive branch operates
the sameway our national executive
branchoperates. The governor is the
leader of this branch.Heor she sees that the
laws are carriedout. The governor alsogives
ideas for programs that he wants. But to
become law, bills have to go through the
legislative process.
In addition, the governor selects people
to lead about 20 different departments.
Some of the well-known departments are
the Departments of Education, Health,
Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce,
Environmental Resources, and so on. Each
department runs a number of groups or
agencies. For example, The Department of
Environmental Resources runs the Bureau
of State Parks and the Fish and Game
Commission. The state police and the
Department of Corrections (our prison
system) also operate under the executive
branch. In these andmany other ways, the
executive branch of our state government
meets the needs of its citizens.
There are other elected positions in the
executivebranch. A
lieutenant governor
is voted intooffice alongwith the governor.
This person helps the governor with his
duties. He also serves as acting governor if
the governor dies or becomes too sick to
performhis duties. The
attorney general
