How to Read a Bill

Bills and legislation have unique formats and designs that vary from the federal to state legislatures as well as among state legislatures. However, there are components to legislation that are uniform and consistent and should be available despite the legislature. Each piece of legislation should be assigned a "bill number" which should appear near the top of the bill. Each piece of legislation should also identify the sponsor and the title of the bill if there is one. Legislation should have the date the bill was offered or introduced as well as a proposed effective date should the legislation pass. The body of the legislation may include a legislative intent or purpose which summarizes the problem or idea identified by the legislature for which the legislation is purported to address. The remaining body of the bill should contain the specific terms, requirements, provisions, and consequences of the legislation. Often times, a bill will contain mark-up notations such as "strike-outs" for language that is to be omitted and the language that is to be added is often bolded, underlined, or capitalized.

Below, are some examples of bill components and mark-ups.