Legislative Drafter Archives

Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments

Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments

This 1-day course in Washington, DC, helps anyone draft and revise bills and amendments, with lessons especially useful to those who prepare reports, legislation and other documents. In this course, instructors explain the role of the OMB, examining various formats and exploring ways to choose the most appropriate one for your issue.

We discuss how to:

Define your audience and broaden your measure's appeal
Assess existing law and policy objectives before putting pen to paper
Structure bills and amendments to streamline the drafting process
Comply with the U.S. Code rules of construction, style, grammar and punctuation guide
Use drafting styles that work in your favor
Apply drafting language to your ideas and goals via hands-on exercises

Course materials include the Training Edition of "Legislative Drafter's Deskbook," by Tobias A. Dorsey.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
9:00 am to 4:30 pm
More information here

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June 24, 2008 02:07 PM Link Comments (0)

Legislative Drafter's Deskbook - Review

Toby Dorsey's book, Legislative Drafter's Deskbook, to be published next month (it's making its way - finally - next week from the printing plant in Michigan to the bookbinder in Massachusetts), is getting more positive reviews.

We thank NCSL's blog, The Thicket, for the pointer to a recent review in the American Political Science Association's Legislative Studies Section Newsletter:

Overall the author produces an informative and effective work that provides readers with a detailed introduction to the thoughtfulness and importance of drafting legislative statutes. This work is so highly informative to someone foreign to the drafting process, that it must also stand a useful daily guide and reminder to actual drafters. The Legislative Drafter's Deskbook clearly has a place on the bookshelves of practitioners and scholars alike.

Review by Curtis Ellis, Carl Albert Graduate Fellow, Ph.D. student of Political Science, University of Oklahoma

For a page of resources for legislative drafters, see Legislative Drafting Reference and Research Tools.

For more information about the Legislative Drafter's Deskbook, see its web page at http://www.thecapitol.net/Publications/legislativedraftersdeskbook.html