diff --git a/docs/design/TEMPLATE.md b/docs/design/TEMPLATE.md
index ee3460f39..e2519adfe 100644
--- a/docs/design/TEMPLATE.md
+++ b/docs/design/TEMPLATE.md
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 
 [A description of the steps in the implementation.]
 
-## Open issues (if applicable)
+## Open issues
 
 [A discussion of issues relating to this proposal for which the author does not
 know the solution. This section may be omitted if there are none.]