Legislative Process Guide


Before writing legislation, a legislator must identify five things:
  1. The underlying purpose(s) of the legislation and the principle statute(s) that the legislator must supplement, delete, or amend in order to achieve that purpose;
  2. How the statute will appear once it becomes law;
  3. Secondary statutes that affect the principle statute being addressed by the legislation, if applicable;
  4. How these secondary statutes must be amended to accommodate the new statute or amendments to the principle existing statute, if applicable; and
  5. The effective date of the legislation.

Findings or Intent
Some legislatures will also include a section detailing the findings or the intent of the legislature, but this doesn't carry any legal weight, and we don't cover this due to its partisan nature.

The Purpose of the Bill
After determining the purpose of the legislation, a legislator must locate the principle statute that needs to be amended, unless they are adding a new statute to achieve this goal. If the legislator intends to add a section to the law they will introduce it as such. For example, Section 1 of HB 503 from Idaho during the 2008 session intends to supplement material to the state code, and is introduced in this manner:

Repeals Existing Statute
If an existing statute does exist, then a legislator can either repeal the existing statute outright or issue amendments to the statute. If a legislator repeals a statute, the section of the statute will be listed, followed by a brief explanation that the statute will be repealed. For example, the entire text (not including the effective date) of S 8638 in New York during the 2008 session reads:

Amends Existing Law
If a legislator intends to amend a statute, the legislation will identify the statute's section number and note that it will be amended as follows. For example, Section 1 of LB 1 in Nebraska during a special session in 2008 amends the law in this manner, and is introduced as follows:

When you're reading a bill text, it's best to check the introductions of each section to see how existing law will be amended.

Identifying New Laws and Laws Being Deleted
The text of the legislation will indicate what is existing law and what is new law. States differ in how they identify new law contained within the legislation, but it's typically rather conspicuous. CAPITAL LETTERS and underlining usually indicate new law, and striking text and using [brackets] indicate existing law that will be deleted. For example, LB 1 from Nebraska is a bill that is targeting the "safe haven law," which received significant media attention. In an attempt to establish an age-limit for this law, which protects adults who abandon children at hospitals from prosecution, the statute was amended by the final version of the bill as follows:

The bill does not require existing law be deleted, since there was not an age-limit to begin with. Instead, the bill inserts the phrase "thirty days old or younger" in the appropriate place to establish an age limit.

Let's review an example of existing law being deleted. HB 2769 from Arizona during the 2008 session sought to amend the law covering late-term abortion. The bill increased the penalty for performing such an abortion and revises the definition of "partial-birth abortion." With respect to increasing the penalty, the bill text reads:

A strike-through indicates matter deleted from the law, whereas text that is in CAPITAL LETTERS indicates new law. The principle change that we're concerned with is elevating the classification of the crime from a Class 6 felony to a Class 5 felony, which carries with it an increase in penalties for physicians who perform this procedure. The bill also includes the following change in the definition of "partial birth abortion":

Existing law relied upon a very limited definition of "partial-birth abortion." The intent of this legislation, in addition to increasing penalties for performing one, is to erase the old definition and provide one that is consistent with the federal definition.

Identifying Amendments
S 249-A from New York during the 2009 session is revising eligibility requirements for the Shock Incarceration Program, which allows specific inmates to serve 6 months in a shock incarceration facility in exchange for conditional early release. However, the principle statute here is not the one that outlines the specifics of the program, but rather the definition of "eligible inmate." Keep in mind that this bill uses [brackets] to indicate existing law that will be deleted:

As you can see, the age of an eligible inmate has been increased from 40 to 50 years. In addition, the bill also relaxes restrictions on drug offenders entering the program. Existing law prohibited anyone who was sentenced to 3.5 years or more under subsection 3 of section 70.70 of the penal code, which covers all felony drug offenses. The bill amends this section to prohibit only those sentenced under subsection 4 of section 70.70 of the Penal Code, which covers inmates convicted of a second felony drug offense that were previously convicted of a violent felony.

References to Existing Law
Occasionally existing law is not provided in the bill, so you must find the existing statute using the citation number provided in the bill text. Here is an example: S 8638 from New York during the 2008 session. The only two sections of the bill read:

The text of the existing law is not provided to tell us what "Subparagraph (vi) of paragraph 8 of subdivision (b) of section 1101 of the tax law" is. You will have to locate that section of the code on their website, where you'll find that this subsection of the law reads:

This language may seem convoluted, especially without the context of the complete statute. If you were to look at the full statute, you'd notice that this lists transactions that are subject to the sales tax, and this particular subsection of the bill extends the sales tax to out-of-state merchants that sell items purchased by and shipped to New York residents. The intent of the legislation is to repeal such a tax.

Secondary Purpose of the Bill
"Secondary statutes" may also be addressed by legislation. This refers to sections of the code that are affected by the principle statute being addressed by the legislation. If legislation intends to amend, delete, or supplement laws, there's a good chance that another provision of the code references that statute. Therefore, that provision will further amending so that the two are consistent. For example, AB 2220 from Arizona during the 2008 session was a proposal to repeal the State Equalization Property Tax. Section 1 of the bill reads:

Other Provisions not to Overlook
In the above example the repealed statute enforces the tax. Because the repeal of this tax is the sole purpose of this bill, you might assume that all the bill needs is an effective date for completion. However, this is a 19 page bill. Several other statutes on the books govern things related to this tax and must now be amended. For example, the bill makes an amendatory change to Section 15-971 as follows:

If you glance at the text that is being deleted, you'll find that it was a statute defining how the county aid for equalization assistance for education is to be calculated. If the legislature repeals the tax, then the legislature must repeal the section of the law specifying how the revenue is to be distributed. This is a good example of how you'll frequently encounter bills in which the information that we need is in only one section, while the remaining provisions of the bill are simply amendatory changes. You will also encounter legislation where multiple sections require summarization, particularly bills that have multiple purposes. Just remember that bill texts vary greatly in length and clarity, but our primary concern is identifying the underlying purpose of the legislation and the principle statute(s) that fulfill the underlying purpose.

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