在美国的立法过程中，法案由国会投票通过（pass），然后经行政首长（即总统或州长）签署后生效，即开始实施（enact），但是立法机关通过法律和法律的实施一般不在同一天。

In the context of the U.S. legislative process, a law is enacted at the moment when it is signed by the President or Governor after being duly passed by the legislative branch (or when it is adopted by the legislative branch in a veto override).

《美国法典》第101条（1 U.S. Code § 101）原文如下：

The enacting clause of all Acts of Congress shall be in the following form: “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled.”

美国的立法流程简化如下：

The legislative process in a nutshell:

  • First, a Representative sponsors a bill.
  • The bill is then assigned to a committee for study.
  • If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended.
  • If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate.
  • In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on.
  • If the Senate makes changes, the bill must return to the House for concurrence.
  • The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval.
  • The President then has 10 days to veto the final bill or sign it into law.

在中国大陆，立法流程走完后有两个日期，公布日期和施行日期。前者指法律成文后向社会公开之日，后者指法律开始具有效力之日。公布或者颁布可以是promulgate，而施行则更接近enact。

以下是promulgate的用法实例：

I urge the Commission to act in accordance with Section 984(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act and promulgate Rule 10c-1 with the intent of promoting transparency, access to complete information, and price discovery with respect to securities borrowing or lending.