FOREWORD Much of this textbook was originally prepared for use in a legislative drafting seminar, the idea for which derived from Appendix D of Reed Dickerson's The Fundamentals of Legal Drafting (Little, Brown & Co. 1965). The seminar's purpose was to train program lawyers of what used to be the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, so that under the guidance of experienced legislative draftsmen they could help write the bills, in the areas of their counseling experience, for HEW's annual legislative program. The best and possibly the only way to learn how to draft a bill is by trying to draft one. Most professional draftsmen wrote their first bills during an apprenticeship in which they learned largely by trial and error. But apprenticeships are time-consuming and labor-intensive. HEW's drafting seminar was an experiment in simulating the apprenticeship for a small group, no more than a dozen. It concentrated the experience into 16 sessions, of 242 hours each, spread over 8 weeks. The seminar's success encouraged me to complete the book for use by students both in future seminars and independent study. Although many of its examples and exercises are drawn from regulatory statutes, the book's focus remains on federal grant-in-aid legislation. My thanks to the members of the Legislation Division of the Department of Health and Human Services, particularly my deputy, Frances White, and to the former chief of the predecessor HEW Division, Sidney A. Saperstein, for many helpful ideas. I am grateful to my colleague, Leslie A. Platt, now an HHS Deputy General Counsel, who drew on his extensive former experience as HUD's Associate General Counsel for Legislation for a number of useful suggestions. Thanks, also, to Sally Davies of the Department's income security policy staff for doing the computational work that resulted in Appendix B. My deepest gratitude, however, must be reserved for Victor Zafra, who edited the text and suppressed my windier sentences, and for my secretary, Evelyn Jimenez, who managed to remain cheerful despite what must have seemed the endless job of typing and retyping the manuscript. DONALD HIRSCH CONTENTS $1.2 Guides for evaluating the adequacy of legislative specifications . $1.4 Determining where to clarify specifications $2.2 Keeping your bill sections conceptually distinct $2.3 Examples of sections that illustrate and sections that blur the relative subordination of their ideas $2.4 An example of economy in drafting $2.5 Exercise in subdividing specifications into sections $2.6 Putting sections into the proper sequence $2.7 Exercise in sequencing sections $2.9 Exercise in reorganizing and redrafting a subsection $2.10 Technical features of bill structure and internal cross $3.7 Exercise in drafting an appropriations authorization and 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 $3.8 State plan provisions 1. State plan programs 2. Other assistance programs $3.11 Exercise in drafting application provisions $3.12 Administrative provisions $3.13 Exercise in drafting administrative provisions $3.14 Civil and criminal penalty provisions and other sanctions 1. Noncompliance with program conditions 2. Civil and criminal penalties $3.15 Administrative and judicial review provisions 1. Rulemaking 2. Adjudication 1. Repealers 5. Authority to issue rules .. $3.17 Effective date provisions 18 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 CHAPTER FOUR Amending a Statute $4.1 General considerations 22 22 22 25 25 25 $4.2 Exercise in developing a drafting outline 1. The sequence, within a section of an amendatory bill, of amendments to an Act 4. Transitional and effective date problems $4.7 Some practices to avoid .... 1. Unnecessary redesignation 25 25 26 27 27 27 28 28 X |