Types of Markups Used In State Legislative Bills
A bill can undergo numerous revisions, additions, and deletions before it becomes law and the small changes matter. Here are all the states' markup meanings.
A bill can undergo numerous revisions, additions, and deletions before a bill becomes law. Tracking bills marked up or changed, is a huge part of understanding what the bill will actually impact. Just a few additions and drastically change the meaning or reach of a piece of legislation.
Why it matters: Not every state uses the same markup methods. To effectively keep track of legislation across one or many states, you’ll need to know what the markups mean.
A great example of what small changes to a bill can do is what Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers was able to do. He made his limited authority work for him and locked in a school funding increase for the next 400 years. The governor of Wisconsin is allowed to alter certain legislation by replacing words and letters wherever they see fit. In a two-year budget authored by the State Legislature, Evers simply removed a hyphen and “20” to change the end date for a $325 per-student spending increase from 2025 to 2425.
Those tiny edits allowed the governor to enact four centuries of funding increases that can only be undone if a court strikes it down, or a future Legislature and governor intervene.
👀 You can read more about all 50 governor’s powers here.
Transparency is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. The ability to track markups in legislative bills allows citizens, advocacy groups, and legislators to understand how proposed laws evolve. It ensures that the decision-making process is open, accountable, and accessible to all. This transparency discourages covert or undisclosed revisions.
Just over half (26 states) use strikethrough to show a deletion and an underline denotes an addition. But there is a range of [brackets], bolding, and UPPERCASE to show changes.
Seer is making it easier than ever to stay up to date on all changes happening with a bill including markups. We keep you in the loop at all times for the bills that matter most to you.
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