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 View sample bills

Your bill should be formatted using our bill template form. This document is available in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). To view this file you must have Acrobat Reader installed, freely downloadable from Adobe. If you are typing your file on a word processor, you may try formatting your bill to look like our template directly.

Additionally, we're providing a Microsoft Word document, bill2002.doc, which you may find helpful in creating your bill. Make sure to use typeover mode (toggled by hitting the "insert" key) when filling in your name and bill title. If your bill is longer or shorter than 20 lines, you can add/delete line numbers in the left column of the table. Type your bill in the right column of the table, and the text will automatically match up with line numbers. This document may not open properly in older versions of Word, so we make no guarantees about good formating in other word processors.

Finally, the bill template is also formatted as a Rich Text Document (.rtf), and can be found here.

1. Choose a topic
Ask yourself:

• Is the topic in my committee's jurisdiction? Access your committee's background paper to find out.
• Would the topic be interesting to discuss and debate?
• Is there a simple, concrete plan of action I could propose relating to this topic?

2. Read up on your topic
Find out:

• What has already been done on this topic?
• What would I change?
• What are the different points of view on this topic?

3. Decide what change you would make
Your policy should be:

• Simple
• Not overly technical
• Feasible

4. Write the bill
A good bill has several parts:

• A short title
  eg.: An Act to Protect Salmon
• An introduction which briefly states the problem
  eg.: Whereas salmon in Washington state are rapidly approaching extinction due to river pollution, be it enacted that . . .
• A policy stating who should do what
  eg: The federal Environmental protection agency shall extend a block grant to Washington state to provide for the protection of salmon
• Funding if appropriate
  eg: Funds shall be provided by a $0.01 tax on gasoline
• Enactment date
  eg: This law shall take effect 180 days after passage

5. Edit the bill
You should:

• Write several drafts
• Edit the bill for both style and content
• Have a friend, teacher, or parent read the bill over for you

6. Have fun!
If you don't find your bill interesting, chances are your committee won't either! Be creative and don't shy away from controversy.

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