How to Write a Bill
Once you've found an interesting and relevant topic on which to write your bill and have done the necessary research, the next step is actually getting your bill ready for discussion in committee. A bill should have three parts:
Preamble: This section should provide your reasons for the necessity of your bill. Why is your topic something that should be addressed by the government? This section's clauses should always begin with a "Where as..."
Body: This section should be separated into sections and subsections. Each proposed idea for the implementation of the bill should be a section. Subsections should be used to provide further detail and clarification (definitions, etc.) for their appropriate bill sections.
Enactment Clause: This is the final section of the bill (and can be labeled as a section as normal). EACH BILL MUST HAVE AN ENACTMENT CLAUSE!! The enactment clause tells your fellow congressmen when your bill will take effect if passed. It may specify a future date (September 30, 2005) or a certain number of days following the passage of the bill (60 days after passage). Enactment dates within 30 days of passage are used for EMERGENCY legislation only. Enactment dates more than 90 days after passage is used for most legislation and is the enactment period for normal legislation.
sample:
PRINCETON MODEL CONGRESS
Committee:
Principal Author:
Bill No:
Delegation:
Title of Bill:
An Act to Reduce Government Subsidy Spending
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PRINCETON MODEL CONGRESS
Preamble: Where as $114,024,265,743 billion has been appropriated to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) over the past seven years for subsidies, and since 10% of the total
USDA subsidy payment recipients were paid 65% of the total USDA subsidies in 2002, and
since subsidized farm operations drove small farmers off their land to cause a 15% decline
in the number of farmers from 1987 to 1997, and since the 1994 Uruguay Round Agreement
on Agriculture established parameters for freer worldwide trade,
SECTION 1: This act may be cited as, “Freedom to Farm bill.”
SECTION 2: Individual farmers, farming corporations or corporate entities shall not receive
subsidies if that person or entity makes less than 80% of their income from
agricultural operations
SECTION 3: There shall be a limit of total subsidies per person per year of $150,000.
SECTION 4: A farming commission shall be created by the USDA to assess--
Sub-SECTION A: The concentration of the subsidy payments.
Sub-SECTION B: How subsidies influence productivity.
Sub-SECTION C: The influence of subsidies on--
(A) Rural Poverty
(B) Agricultural Growth
(C) Foreign trade
SECTION 5: There shall be an expansion of the quota buy-out program set by the 2002
Farm Bill.
Sub-SECTION A: The industries subject to the quota buy-out program are the
corn, wheat, rice and sugar industries.
Sub-SECTION B: The USDA will create and implement a buy-out program that
will completely abolish quotas in these industries over the 5 years following the
passage of this bill.
SECTION 6: This bill shall go into effect 91 days after passage.