A bill is a proposal for a new law, or a proposal to significantly change an existing law. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and has been, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law by the legislature, it is called an act of the legislature, or a statute. Bills are introduced in the legislature and are discussed, debated and voted upon.
A bill to amend the act entitled "An act to organize forces to serve during the war," approved Feb. 17, 1864
A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Legislatures can exist at different levels of government–national, state/provincial/regional, local, even supranational. Countries differ as to what extent they grant deliberative assemblies at the subnational law-making power, as opposed to purely administrative responsibilities.
United States Capitol building, where the legislature of the United States, the United States Congress, meets, located in Washington, DC
The Congress of the Republic of Peru, the country's national legislature, meets in the Legislative Palace in 2010.
The German Bundestag, its theoretical lower house
The Australian Senate, its upper house
