SGA meeting features bill writing workshop

By CATHERINE PALMER · The Johns Hopkins News-Letter · September 10, 2015

By CATHERINE PALMER

The Student Government Association (SGA) held a workshop during their meeting to discuss how to properly write bills.

“One of the big things we talked about after our meeting last Tuesday and our executive board meeting on Friday with [Associate Dean of Student Engagement and SGA Advisor Tiffany Sanchez] is that we have actually been doing the structure of writing and proposing bills entirely wrong for about a decade,” SGA Executive President Jason Plush said.

Plush explained that writing resolutions is actually more complicated than writing a bill.

“Writing a resolution is a lot more formalized, whereas writing a bill is clear sections. It’s mainly using Roman numerals and section sub-headers,” he said.

During the meeting, senators were assigned to committees created by the CLEAR Act, a bill passed in last week’s meeting. The committees include Academic Affairs, Finance, Health and Safety, Student Organizations, Student Services, Sustainability and Development, Constitution and Bylaws and the Judiciary committee.

Samantha Seto contributed reporting.

Summary

This Johns Hopkins News-Letter article covers an SGA meeting workshop on writing bills.
The News-Letter reported that the meeting included a workshop on how to write bills properly. 1The Student Government Association (SGA) held a workshop during their meeting to discuss how to properly write bills.
The paper reported that Executive President Jason Plush said bill-writing and proposal methods had been handled incorrectly for about a decade. 2One of the big things we talked about after our meeting last Tuesday and our executive board meeting on Friday with [Associate Dean of Student Engagement and SGA Advisor Tiffany Sanchez] is that we have actually been…
The article adds that Plush said resolutions are more formal than bills, which use clear sections, Roman numerals and section sub-headers. 3Writing a resolution is a lot more formalized, whereas writing a bill is clear sections. It’s mainly using Roman numerals and section sub-headers,
The reporter writes that senators were assigned to committees created by the CLEAR Act, which the article says passed at the previous meeting; the committees covered academic affairs, finance, health and safety, student organisations, student services, sustainability and development, constitutional matters and the judiciary. 4During the meeting, senators were assigned to committees created by the CLEAR Act, a bill passed in last week’s meeting. The committees include Academic Affairs, Finance, Health and Safety, Student Organizations,…