- Act: A bill approved by both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor,
or allowed to become law without signature, or passed by the legislature over the governor's veto.
- Adoption: A motion used to describe final action taken on all amendments
and conference committee reports. Each house may adopt or refuse to adopt
an amendment or report.
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Amendment: A proposal to change a bill, joint resolution, or resolution
by adding, deleting, or substituting language. (See also simple and
substitute amendment.)
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Appropriation: The setting aside of public revenues for a specific use or
program.
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Author(s): The legislator or legislative committee that introduces a bill
or resolution. Members of the same house who sign the bill are referred to
as co-authors.
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Bill: An idea, drafted in legal language, to change current law by adding
new language, deleting old language, or amending existing language.
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Bulletin of Proceedings: A publication of the legislature that contains a
numerical list of all bills and other measures introduced and the actions
taken on them; indexes by subject matter and author of all measures
introduced; and a numerical listing of statute sections and session laws
affected by acts and enrolled bills of the current session and acts from
the previous session that had an effective date delayed until the current
session.
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Calendar: The daily schedule of business for each house that shows the
order in which proposals and other business will be taken up on the floor.
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Call of the House: A procedure for requiring the attendance of absent members.
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Committee: A group of legislators appointed to hold public hearings or
otherwise consider proposals within certain subject areas and recommend
some of them for further consideration on the floor. (See also conference
committee, special committee, and standing committee.)
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Concurrence: A measure that has passed one house is sent to the second
house for agreement or concurrence. The second house may concur or may
refuse to concur.
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Conference Committee: A committee consisting of members of both houses to
work out their differences when the 2 houses pass different versions of
the same bill.
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Constituents: People who live in a given senate or assembly district.
- Division of the Question: To break a question into 2 or more separate propositions
so that each can receive legislative action.
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Engross: A motion to engross a bill is the step before final passage in
the house of origin. An order to print a proposal in its engrossed form
means to incorporate all amendments and chief clerks corrections to the
original bill for consideration by the second house.
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Enroll: Once a bill has passed both houses, its amendments, corrections,
and changes are consolidated into one text to be presented to the governor
for signature.
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Executive Session: A committee meeting where committee members vote on
the disposition of a bill or other proposal. Only committee members may
speak in an executive session.
- Expunge the Record: To remove material from the record, and thus undo legislative action.
- Extraordinary Session: The convening of the legislature by the assembly and senate committees
on organization or by petition or joint resolution of the legislature to accomplish the business specified in
the action calling the session.
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First Reading: The formal announcement on the floor of the legislature
that a bill or other proposal has been introduced.
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Fiscal Estimate: An estimate of the change in state and local government
revenues and expenditures that a bill may cause.
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Floor Debate: Discussion of a proposal in the Senate or Assembly chambers.
A bill being debated is referred to as being "on the floor."
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Floorperiods: Times set aside by the session schedule during which
legislators consider and debate measures in the Senate and Assembly
chambers.
- Floor Amendment: Any amendment offered for legislative consideration
at the 2nd reading stage, or for committee consideration, but not drafted by
the Legislative Reference Bureau.
- Germaneness: The relevance or appropriateness of amendments to a proposal.
- History: A procedural record of actions on any given proposal.
- Indefinite Postponement: A motion to kill a proposal in its house of origin for a legislative session.
- Joint Hearing: A hearing held by a joint committee or by committees of the senate and the assembly.
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Joint Resolution: A proposal that makes a request, affects operations of
both houses, pays tribute to public figures, or proposes a constitutional
amendment that is acted on by both houses but does not require approval by
the governor.
- Joint Session: A joint meeting of the senate and the assembly.
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Joint Standing Committee: A permanent committee made up of members from
both houses of the legislature.
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Journals: The official record of legislative business kept by each house
of the legislature. They do not keep a record of floor debate.
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Lobbyists: People who are paid to represent various interest groups
before the legislature.
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Override: The legislature may pass a measure over the governor's
objections by voting to override a veto by a two-thirds majority of
members present in both houses.
- Paired Voting: When a roll call vote is requested, each member
must vote either "aye" or "no" unless paired with another member. Pairing
is a written agreement between 2 members on the opposite sides of a question not to vote on the question if one or both
are absent with leave, which allows the absent member to influence the outcome of the vote.
- Parliamentary Inquiry: A request for an explanation of a legislative rule or procedure (see also Point of Order).
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Parliamentary Procedure: The rules and rulings under which legislatures
conduct their business.
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Partial Veto: The governor may veto any part of an appropriation bill.
- Point of Order: A request that the presiding officer rule on a matter of parliamentary procedure.
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Public Hearing: Meetings held by committees at which members of the
public, lobbyists, legislators, and state agency representatives may
speak or register for or against a proposal.
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Relating Clause: That part of the title of a bill or other proposal that
identifies the general subject matter of the measure.
- Remain Informal: A temporary suspension of proceedings in the senate or the
assembly chambers.
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Resolution: A proposal that makes a request, affects the operations of
one house, including amending its rules, that requires no action by the
2nd house.
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Roll Call Vote: A vote in which members' votes are recorded with their
names.
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Rules: The detailed code of parliamentary procedure adopted by each house
at the beginning of each session. They prescribe the way in which the
legislature does business and provide methods for settling disputes. In
addition to the rules of each house, there are also joint rules.
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Second Reading: The stage at which amendments to proposals are considered.
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Section: There are sections of the statutes and sections of bills or acts.
A section of the statutes is the primary division of a statute chapter,
for example Section 13.01. Sections are also the divisions in bills or
acts.
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Service Committee: Committees that primarily handle the internal
operations of each house.
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Session: The entire 2-year period that begins with the swearing in of a
new legislature in January of the odd-numbered year and ends just before
the swearing in of the next legislature.
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Session Laws: The acts of the legislature compiled and published for each
biennial session. The acts of the 1993 Legislature will be the Laws of
1993.
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Session Schedule: Adopted by the legislature at the beginning of each
session, it sets the dates for floorperiods and committee work periods.
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Simple Amendment: It changes some portion of a bill or other proposal by
adding, deleting, or substituting language. It is an instruction to do
something to the measure.
- Skeleton Session: A brief formal convening of the Assembly or Senate held purely to
satisfy the constitutional requirement that a house cannot adjourn for more than three days
without the consent of the other house, and to make pro forma referrals. There is no debate or voting on bills.
The session usually lasts a few minutes and involves only two or three members and the clerk.
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Special Committee: A committee appointed to examine legislation on a
particular topic. Sometimes called a select committee, it automatically
ceases to exist when its task is finished or when the session ends.
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Standing Committee: Committees established by the rules of each house to
examine legislation, hold hearings, and make recommendations on
legislative measures. They may be abolished or created only by changing
the rules.
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Statutes: The general laws of the state that have been given statute
section numbers by legislation or by supreme court order. They are revised
every 2 years.
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Substitute Amendment: It completely rewrites and may replace a bill or
other proposal.
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Sustain: To uphold the governor's action following a veto or partial
veto of a bill.
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Table: A motion in parliamentary procedure to temporarily set aside a
measure and attend to other business.
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Third Reading: The stage at which bills and other proposals come up for
final discussion and possible passage. No amendments may be offered at
this point.
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Veto: A bill passed by the legislature that the governor rejects in its
entirety.
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Veto Message: For each bill vetoed or partially vetoed, the governor
must explain the reasons for the veto in a message to the legislature.
- Voice Vote: A vote taken by asking the members in favor of a question to
say “aye” simultaneously and then the members opposed to likewise say “no”.
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