Bill Writing Guide - Florida Model Legislature (Page 2 of 4) in pdf

Step 2: Draft Your Bill

Writing Your Bill

Now you draft your bill. You can work as a team with your campus delegation or you can work alone.

Collaborate, research, and have fun. Remember, your bill MUST be a Florida state issue. Only

resolutions, which are usually a joint effort, can be used for federal issues.

The bill should include:

1. Title and Sponsor

2. Bill # and Committee will be assigned by staff

3. Begin with “An act related to”

4. Followed by: “Be it Enacted by the Florida Model Legislature: (Enacting Clause)

5. Body of the Bill

6. Summary

Title & Author/Sponsor: The first part of your bill is the title. The Florida Constitution states that: “every

law shall embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, and the subject shall be

briefly expressed in the title.” (Article III, Section 6). Author/Sponsor can be the bill author or the person

sponsoring the bill. They don’t have to be one in the same. Write your bill title and sponsor below. The

title does not need to be detailed, but it needs to clearly present the idea you’re trying to convey.

Title: _______________________________________________________________________________

Sponsor: ____________________________________________________________________________

Bill # and Committee will be assigned by conference staff based on conference needs and bill contents.

An act related to: a brief summary of “what” your bill will do. I.E. “An act related to in-state tuition for

veterans; amending s. 1009.26 relating to postsecondary tuition; providing an effective date”.

An act related to: ______________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

Enacting Clause: The Florida Constitution states that the enacting clause of every law shall read: “Be It

Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida”. Nothing else is needed on this line.

Body of the Bill: The body of the bill specifies how the bill will fulfill the requirements you wrote in your

“act related to and title”. These specifications are separated into sections. Your sections should include at

least:



Existing statutes/Change/addition(underlined)/deletion( strikethrough)/repealing of existing laws



Definitions of terms used in the bill if necessary



Actions such as funding, enforcement, penalty



An effective date

Summary: Provide a brief summary of your bill and its intended actions if passed.

Now it’s time to draft your bill. Attached is a Florida Model Legislature bill template. Write your draft in

the spaces provided. Use only the number of sections you need.

Bill Writing Guide - Florida Model Legislature Page 2