Finding Louisiana Legislative History Materials

Transcription

1 Finding Louisiana Legislative History Materials Louisiana legislative history materials date back to Prior to that year, only entries in the legislative calendars indicating that a committee discussed a bill are available. Since that date, published sources of information include the various versions of the bills, the calendars, and the journals. Committee Discussions and Testimony Committee discussion and testimony for instruments dating from 1976 can be obtained by contacting the docket office of the house in which the bill originated. It is best to know the act number and year of passage. For House bills, contact the House Docket Office ( ), which will give you the committee information needed to obtain a copy of the committee tapes (note: transcripts are not available) from the Louisiana State Archives. For Senate bills, contact the Senate Docket Office ( ), which maintains minutes of its committee meetings dating back to Comparisons with Previous Enactments The bills (1st Floor Microform Room, Cabinet 46) will include notes comparing the proposed law with previous enactments, if any. This information will also be found in the Resumé of Acts, Propositions, Vetoed Bills, Resolutions, and Study Requests (KFL 15.L68 [year]), which will include notes comparing the new law with the prior law in the "Statutes Enacted" section. Legislative Calendars The legislative calendars (KFL18.L44) include author and subject indexes to the instruments, as well as a listing, by instrument number, of the dates of consideration, including votes. The page numbers in the calendar entries relate to the page numbers for the day's entries in the journals (House KFL18.H 68; Senate KFL 8.L685), which are at the top of the pages in the journals, not the sequential page numbering at the bottom of the pages. For example, we find in the legislative calendar covering the 1996 regular session that senate amendments to House Bill 1 were concurred on June 12, 1996, and page 13 is cited. We then go the section of the House journal covering June 12, and look for page number 13 at the top of the page. Also note that in this case page 13 refers to the beginning of coverage for this information. House and Senate Journals The journals are arranged by legislative day. They include roll call votes and, on rare occasions, the short committee reports. These usually take the form of recommendations for rejection or approval of parts or all of a bill, but do not include the reasoning behind the recommendations

2 Floor debates are not recorded; committee reports are not published in any form. The journals are found on the second floor of the library at KFL 18.H 68 for the House and KFL 18.S46 for the Senate. WHEN RESEARCHING A LOUISIANA LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENT... First establish what you know about the instrument. Do you know the...date?...act (session law) number?...bill number?...bill's sponsor?...subject? Always try to narrow the year range first. Without a year, you will need to search 1804 to date. To find information about BILLS: If you know the sponsor of a bill, search: Legislative Calendar of the Legislature of the State of Louisiana: "Author Index" LOCATION: 2 nd Floor, Louisiana Collection KFL18.L44 [year] If you know the subject of the bill, search: Resumé of Acts, Propositions, and Vetoed Bills: "Subject Index" If you know the bill number, search: Legislative Calendar of the Legislature of the State of Louisiana. LOCATION: 2 nd Floor Louisiana Collection KFL18.L44 [year] Resumé of Acts: Tables regarding final disposition of House and Senate bills. Louisiana Legislature Home Page URL: If you know the revised statute section or code article, search: - 2 -

3 Louisiana Statutes Annotated: "Historical and Statutory Notes" annotation. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 2 nd Floor State Codes Collection, 3 rd Floor Louisiana Research Collection Resumé of Acts, Vetoed Bills and Propositions: table listing changes effected If you know that a bill was vetoed,, search: Resumé of Acts, "Listing of Vetoed Bills", which will include the governor's veto message To find the full text of bills, search: Louisiana Legislature Home Page (1997- ) For bills from 1950 to 1969, see bound volumes at KFL 6.L686 [year] (House bills) KFL 6.S46 ([year] Senate bills) in the Louisiana Collection, 2nd Floor For bills from 1970-current, see 1 st Floor Microform Room, cabinet 46, drawers 3-6. WESTLAW: LA-BILLTXT: Full text of all available bills (introduced, amended, and enacted versions) from the current session of the Louisiana legislature. This database also contains a legislative session status calendar providing the latest information about session status, adjournment dates, and action deadlines. LEXIS: LA Library, LATEXT File: Full text of all published versions of Louisiana bills. To find the status of bills: Call the Legislature's PULSline ( or ) for the status of current bills

4 WESTLAW LA-BILLS: Summary bill tracking materials (summary of bill and status information), as well as the full text of all available bills (introduced, amended, and enacted versions. Current data only.) LA-BILLTRK: Contains summaries and status information concerning current legislation. Bills are tracked from their introduction throughout the legislative process. Each bill summary is a document. This database also contains a legislative session status calendar providing the latest information about session status, adjournment dates, and action deadlines. LA-LEGIS-OLD: tracking information for bills dating from 1987 to LEXIS: LA Library, Legislative files. LATRCK: Louisiana bill tracking for the current year. Pending bills tracked from introduction to enactment or veto. Bill tracking files are updated daily. LATEXT: Full text of all published versions of Louisiana bills. LABILL: Combined LATRCK and LATEXT files. To find information about ACTS (session laws): If you know the sponsor, search: Acts, State of Louisiana, Index of Act number by Author, [year]. The index is in the rear of the volume. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 2 nd Floor Louisiana Collection; 3 rd Floor Louisiana Research Collection, 1 st Floor Microform Room: Cabinet 17 Drawer 6 If you know the act number, search: Acts, State of Louisiana [year]. The acts are arranged in numerical order. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 3 rd Floor Louisiana Research Collection, 1 st Floor Microform Collection: Cabinet 17, Drawer 6 Resumé of Acts, Vetoed Bills and Propositions, section on statutes enacted, where new - 4 -

5 law is compared with prior law. Louisiana Statutes Annotated: Tables volume, "Acts and Resolutions" table, for changes effected. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 2nd Floor State Statutes Collection If you know the subject of the act, search: Acts, State of Louisiana [year]: "Index to Acts" in the rear of the volume. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 3 rd Floor, Louisiana Research Collection, 1st Floor Microform Room: Cabinet 17, Drawer 6 Louisiana Statutes Annotated, General Index volumes. Then check annotations immediately following cited statute section or code article. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 2nd Floor State Statutes Collection Resumé of Acts, Propositions, and Vetoed Bills: "Subject Index" then use statutes enacted section in same volume. LOCATION: 2nd Floor Louisiana Collection KFL 15.L68 [year] If you know the bill number of the act, search: Acts, State of Louisiana, list of acts by bill number, in the rear of the volume. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 3rd Floor Louisiana Research Collection, 1st Floor Microform Room: Cabinet 17, Drawer 6 Resumé of Acts, Tables regarding final disposition of House and Senate bills. LOCATION: 2nd Floor Louisiana Collection KFL 15.L68 [year] If you know the statutory citation, search: Acts, State of Louisiana [year], cross-reference tables at rear of volume. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 3rd Floor, Louisiana Research Collection - 5 -

6 Louisiana Statutes Annotated, see the Historical and Statutory Notes annotations immediately following statute section or code article. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 2nd Floor State Statutes Collection To find the full text of acts, search: Louisiana Legislature Home Page URL: session- Acts, State of Louisiana [year] The acts are arranged in numerical order. LOCATIONS: Main Reading Room, 3rd Floor Louisiana Research Collection FURTHER READING: Chiang, Win-Shin S. Louisiana Legal Research. 2nd ed. Austin: Butterworth Legal Publishers, Reserve Reading Room KFL75.C Law Library of Louisiana. "Louisiana Legislative History." Torres, José R. and Steve Windsor. "State Legislative Histories: A Select, Annotated Bibliography." Law Library Journal 85 (1993): Charlene Cain Revised April