Open Enrollment: Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments – Sept. 17, 2025

Jul 3

Written By ilegis

Course Instructor:

ANTHONY C. COE served for more than 30 years in the U.S. Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel, with primary areas of responsibility in homeland security, the Congress, the Judiciary, administrative law, Government organizations and employees, Federal employee health and retirement benefits, privacy laws, and intellectual property. He retired as Senior Counsel. Mr. Coe currently is a consultant for training attorneys and legal interns in drafting legislation, Senate procedure, and the Federal legislative process with the U.S. Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel. He also serves as a faculty member at the International Law Institute (Georgetown University Law School). Mr. Coe is Vice Chancellor for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington (Counsel). He received his BA from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a JD from Catholic University Law School.

Course Summary

This course helps anyone draft, revise, and review bills and amendments, with lessons especially useful to those who review legislation, prepare reports, or draft legislation and other formal legislative documents. In this course our expert faculty explain the role of the OMB, examine various formats and explore ways to choose the most appropriate one for your issue.

You will learn how to:
• Define your audience and broaden your measure’s appeal
• Assess existing law and policy objectives before beginning to draft
• Structure bills and amendments to streamline the drafting process
• Comply with the United States Code (U.S.C.) rules of construction, style, grammar and punctuation guide
• Use drafting styles that work in your favor
• Apply drafting language to your ideas and goals via hands-on exercises
• Review legislation drafted by others

Time: 9:00-4:30 PM EST
Location: Online, Zoom Meeting

Registration Policy and Minimum Attendance Requirement

As part of the training, you will receive a copy of theLegislative Drafter’s Desk Reference, 3rd Edition.To ensure the success of our training sessions, we require a minimum number of participants. If we do not meet this minimum threshold by two weeks prior to the scheduled training date, the session will be canceled and rescheduled for a later date. In the event of cancellation, registered participants will have the option to:

Receive a full refund, or
Transfer the registration to the rescheduled training or a future session of their choice.

We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to register early to help secure the session.

Sample Agenda

Preparing to Draft
• Analyze the problem, facts, and existing law — determine the policy to be drafted and the law to be addressed
• Decide which approach and drafting style to use
• Understand the differences between positive and non-positive law
• Understand the amendment process: form and technique
• Use special provisions designed to clarify and simplify

Organization and Structural Guidelines
• Consider who the “audience” of your legislation or amendment will be
• Review organizational guidelines of a legislative measure

Drafting “Rules,” Style and Practical Tips
• Learn punctuation rules, practical tips and suggestions on legislative style, grammar, and specific wording
• Gain awareness of general drafting problems
• Review basic rules of construction as outlined in the United States Code
• Discuss the executive orders on “writing in plain English” and legislative branch requirements

Testimonials

“I’ve worked on the fringes of legislative drafting & this course gave me real tools to write better legislative changes, amendments & bill text.”
— Senior Legislative Analyst, DOC/NIST

“This will help me draft legislation for the [Agency] – and we need it.”
— Chief, Legislative Liaison, federal agency

ilegis