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How to read a bill: Legislative counsel walks committee through VSA, session law and markup conventions
Summary
Legislative counsel reviewed bill structure and legal publishing conventions with the Health Care Committee, explaining titles, statement-of-purpose, section headers, the meaning of ellipses (***), VSA placement, and markup conventions (strikethrough for deletions, underline for additions).
Legislative counsel gave a step-by-step briefing Jan. 16 to the House Health Care Committee on how to read a bill, including where to find a bill’s title, statement of purpose, statutory references and markup conventions.
Counsel explained that every bill includes a header that lists the bill number, sponsor and subjects; a plain-language "statement of purpose" that describes the bill as introduced; a title that usually begins "An act relating to..." and numbered sections that show where statutory language would be added or amended. "This bill has 3 sections," counsel said while demonstrating an example that amends sections of Title 18 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated (VSA).
The staff reviewed how to tell whether a bill is amending existing law or adding a new section: lead-in language will say a "section is added to read" for new sections and "is amended to read" for changes. Counsel explained that a line of three asterisks or ellipses (***) in the text indicates omitted statutory language that already exists and that the office is not changing; the stars are placeholders to show context without displaying unchanged text.
Other conventions explained: strikethrough text denotes proposed deletions, and underlined text denotes proposed additions. Effective-date and reporting sections frequently do not carry a VSA heading because they are time-limited session law; those provisions appear in Acts and Resolves and may not be integrated into the green bound statute volumes. Counsel also described "as introduced," "as passed House," "as passed Senate," unofficial (clean) and official (red-markup) versions and said the unofficial clean version prepared by counsel is often easier to read while the official version from clerks shows all strike-all and amendment history.
Counsel also discussed how the green statute books are supplemented: annual supplements are added for enacted changes, and volumes are republished every five to ten years. The Acts and Resolves volumes show each act as it appeared at enactment and include keyword tables.
"We try to give a flavor of what is in the bill," counsel said of the statement of purpose, noting that long bills may not be fully described in that summary and that a section-by-section summary can be prepared on request.
