Bill Writing Guidelines
Bill Writing Guide
Coming up with an idea for legislation may be the hardest part of bill writing. Once you've found an idea that is interesting to you and have done proper research, it is time to draft the bill.
Types of Legislation
At the WMMC Conference, there are three different types of legislation.
Bills are the most common form of legislation. A bill is a proposed law.
Bills often have what is called a "short title", e.g. "the Defense of Marriage Act." The short title is a convenient way to reference a bill and often include acronyms or years, as opposed to the long or full title, which can be rather cumbersome to use, e.g. "An Act to define and protect the institution of marriage." If you would like to use a short title for your bill, it should be written in Section 1.
The body of your bill can have as many sections as necessary. The final section, however, always contains an effective date. Since the William & Mary Model Congress strives to realistically represent the workings of the US Congress, the W&M Model Congress does not impose restrictions on bills that take effect immediately. All bills, regardless of whether they take effect immediately, in 90 days, or 6 months, require only a majority vote.
Resolutions are used in matters concerning the operation or opinion of either House alone.
Joint resolutions are used to amend the Constitution and require a 2/3 majority to pass during full session.
The W&M Model Congress reserves the right to modify all bill submissions to make them conform to the W&M Model Congress format.