Whenever hearings are completed a committee may meet to mark up a measure. The language of the original measure will be analyzed line by line or section by section and then marked up or changed and amended. photo credit: withassociates The easiest way to conduct a markup is to use an introduced measure. In this … Read more
Drafting a provision that repeals a law is not difficult. Any type of plain instruction will be sufficient; such as “The ABC Act is Repealed.” It is important to ensure that the provision being repealed is clearly identified, including a full citation. There are some important rules that should be observed regarding repeals. First, repealing … Read more
When drafting federal legislation, it is important to ensure you are using the correct style. Style refers to the look and feel of a measure. While it might be assumed that style refers to the words that are used, style actually refers to the way in which words are placed on the page, a combination … Read more
After a policy has been thought through, the next step is to begin crafting the words that will be used. The goal at this stage is not identifying the focus, but expressing it as effectively as possible. There is no special language that is used for writing legislation. Effective drafting requires clear writing. There must … Read more
Legislative drafts can fail for two reasons. Some fail because of poor communication while others fail due to a lack of imagination. Whenever there is a lack of communication, in most cases the draft is simply not clear. Common sense editing can usually resolve this problem. Whenever there is a lack of imagination, the draft … Read more
There is often a misconception that drafting legislation is merely about writing, when the truth of the matter is that drafting legislation more accurately and frequently involves identifying, presenting and then resolving issues. Those issues could be related to policy or they might involve a technicality. Therefore, the most critical part of the legislative drafter’s … Read more