After bills have been drafted by Legislative Commissioners' Office and assigned an LCO number, they are sent to the Clerk's Office to be prepared for committee action.
After the bill is filed with the clerk's office it is assigned a bill number.
- Next it is presented in the originating chamber (House or Senate) for a first reading.
- The clerk reads the bill number and title aloud, and the presiding officer assigns it to a committee. Usually, the first reading is waved and the bill is simply assigned to the proper committee. Assigning it to a committee is a key move in the life of a bill because - as you will learn - many decisions made at the committee level ultimately determine whether a bill passes into law or dies.
It's True! How many bills actually pass each year? Not too many! Only a small fraction of bills introduced during any given session are passed into law. During the 2006 session, of the 3141 bills introduced, 196 were actually passed.
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Tip The Legislative Commissioners Office assigns a unique number to each bill and amendment they receive. This helps people keep track of which version was introduced first since they are chronologically assigned
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