The 60-day annual legislative session in Tallahassee can seem a confusing, rushed, and hectic mishmash of activity.
Bills with confusing titles are introduced in committee, amended, sent to another committee, altered again and then — if they’re still alive — eventually make it to the floor of their respective chambers. Where, again, they can be rewritten in their entirety (via the ubiquitous strike-all amendment).
Using its Web site and the Lobbytools legislative information service, The Florida Bar is trying to demystify the legislative process for its members and also make it easier to find and track bills of interest.
Bar General Counsel Paul Hill said all filed legislation is reviewed and then sorted according to potential interest to various Bar committees and sections.
To access the information, click on Legislative Activity on the left side menu on the Bar’s homepage at www.floridabar.org . On the resulting page, scroll down to “The Current Legislative Session” and then click on the link under it to “2009 Bill Report.”
That goes to a page with a list of all sections and committees which might be affected by legislation. Just click on any section or committee to see bills that might fall into its purview.
Hill said if there’s any hint a bill would be of interest to a section or committee, it’s included.
“It’s our effort to imagine who would care (about a bill) with the biggest stretch of the imagination,” he said.
Having a bill number is one thing. Getting information is another. Rather than have Bar members take the number and look up the bill on a legislative Web site, each listed bill is connected to a page run by Lobbytools. Clicking on the link takes the member to the page, which provides links to staff analysis of the bill, text of the legislation, proposed amendments, legislative history as it proceeds through committees, and a schedule of when and where it is next set to be heard.
The bills are included only as those that may be of interest to a section or committee and does not mean that section or committee has taken an advocacy position on the bill. Such advocacy must conform to official Bar policies on legislative activity. A different part of the legislative activity section of the site provides a list of all current Bar-wide, section, and committee authorized legislative positions. It also explains the Bar policies that govern legislative activities.
Hill and Elizabeth May, his legislative aide, said the Web service is an expansion of what the Bar has always done to keep sections and committees informed about bills. They also said they are still working to refine it and welcome suggestions.
May can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 850-561-5662.
— Courtesy Florida Bar News