Writing Legislation

The most important part of a Student Congress is the legislation, which is submitted as either a bill or resolution.

A bill has the binding power of national law, with the details of how, when, and who will execute the law. These concerns are addressed in one of five sections in the bill, but none explain the reasoning behind the piece of legislation. Resolutions, on the other hand, still have the binding power of law, but  offer suggestions ("we should" instead of "we will"). Because resolutions offer suggestions, the exact details of the law are not addressed. Instead, the substance of the resolution comes from "whereas" clauses, which explain why something needs to be changed.

In order to be used in a Student Congress tournament, the piece of legislation must follow the proper format, which includes numbered lines and double spaced throughout.

The following are links to templates for a bill and a resolution that include the proper formatting and explain what should go into each section or whereas clause.
Bill Template
Resolution Template

Now for the most important part, what to write the piece of legislation about. As Student Congress is debate, it should go without saying that their needs to be clearly two, highly debatable sides to the idea. Reading any newspaper, especially the editorial section, often provide ideas on how society should be changed. With research, most of these are good topics for Student Congress legislation.
A few warnings...

• Student Congress models United States Congress, so the issues must be within the proper jurisdiction and of national importance.
• Refrain from writing legislation about highly controversial topics such as abortion, stem cell research, and to an extent, healthcare. Much legislation already exists on these topics and they are over debated already.
• Do not write legislation that overturns Supreme Court cases or legislation that is very similar to something already passed/failed in United States Congress.
• Do not violate federalism.  What is federalism?  This concept refers to the division between state and federal jurisdiction.  You are writing for the federal congress.  Would you like more information?  Go here to see the various federal departments and their jurisdictions.

Would you like some inspiration for writing legislation?  You may wish to visit The Library of Congress's Thomas page.