Background

In the 110th Congress, shortly after the first plain language bill (short title, "Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2007") had been introduced in the House, a similar bill—Senate Bill 2291 (S. 2291)—with same title was introduced in the Senate. The bill (shown below as Version #1) would die in the Senate, without amendment.

In the next term, the 111th Congress, similar legislation was introduced as S. 574, now entitled "Plain Writing Act of 2009." That bill would have one more version, but a House bill introduced with the same title would ultimately win passage by both houses of Congress as the Plain Writing Act of 2010 (Public Law No. 111-274; 124 Stat 2861).

About Version #1

Version #1 (below) represents the (sole) version of Senate Bill 2291 (S. 2291) as it was originally introduced in the Senate by Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) on november 1, 2007, and referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Joseph I. Lieberman (I-CT), Chairman). On April 10, 2008, the committee ordered it reported favorably, without any amendment, to the full Senate, which was done on July 10, 2008, at which time the bill was placed on the Senate Calendar, under General Orders, Calendar No. 869. The bill died in the Senate, as no further action was taken on it.

(For a history of the legislative process by which the various plain language bills struggled through Congress and ultimately resulted in passage of the Plain Writing Act of 2010, see the Legislative History project of the Plain Writing Association by clicking here. The project also gives more details about the amendments made to the various versions.)

NOTE

     For purposes of this project, the Version #1 is the introduced version and any susequently reported versions, provided that they added no amendments. Version #2 is the amended version of Version #1; and so on. Thus, Version #3 would be an amended version of Version #2; and Version #4 would be an amended version of Version #3. In short, as long as a version of a bill does not change (for example, from the time it's introduced to the time it's reported out of a committee), it is treated as a single version.

     Each bill shown has indications of what material is different from the previous bill shown. Red with overstrike is what was in previous one but not in current one; green is what is in current but not in the previous one. These proofreading-like marks provide an excellent sense of the thinking that went into the process of revision and markup from one version to the next; this is not meant to suggest, however, that the actual revision necessarily utilized only the immediately preceding version.

      Sources of original versions include GovTrack.us and Thomas.LOC.gov

Scroll down to the bill (farther below).