Making the Incomprehensible Comprehensible
This article is about a hearing conducted by the House Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs. The hearing was in reference to proposed legislation (H.R. 4809) that would require bureaucrats to use plain language when writing regulations.
A few examples of legalese v. plain language presented at the hearing:
A Department of Justice regulation — “When a filing is prescribed to be filed with more than one of the foregoing, the filing shall be deemed filed as of the day the last one actually receives the same.”
A rewrite offered by Annetta L. Cheek, Vice-Chair of the Center for Plain Language — “We consider a filing to have occurred when all those who must receive the filing receive it.”
Another Department of Justice regulation — “No payment shall be made to (or on behalf of) more than one individual on the basis of being the public safety officer’s parent as his mother, or on that basis as his father.”
Another rewrite offered by Cheek — “We will pay only one person claiming to be the public safety officer’s father and only one claiming to be the mother.”
