|
Missouri General Assembly |
Research Division Russ Hembree, Director The committee is comprised of the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and nine other members of the Senate and the Chairman of the House Budget Committee and nine other members of the House of Representatives. The Senate members are appointed by the President Pro Tem of the Senate and House members are appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. No more than six members from the House and six members from the Senate may be of the same political party. The Chairman of the Committee on Legislative Research appoints an *Oversight Subcommittee to more closely supervise the work of the Oversight Division. Three Representatives and three Senators from the full committee are appointed to the subcommittee.
The committee is directed by statute to provide a variety of services for the General Assembly and its members. The committee's offices and staff are divided into two divisions, a Research Division and an Oversight Division. The committee itself is not a policy making group and formulates no legislative program. Its staff renders only such technical and professional assistance as may be requested by the General Assembly or any of its members, or as required by statute. The Research Division provides bill drafting assistance, prepares concurrent and courtesy resolutions, operates a legislative reference library and publishes the Revised Statutes of Missouri and subsequent supplements, and Session Laws of Missouri. BILL DRAFTING SERVICE One of the legislative aids furnished by the committee is its bill drafting service. Bills are drawn at the request of any member of the General Assembly but the fact that a bill has been drafted by a member of the staff does not carry with it the endorsement of the Committee on Legislative Research. All bill requests are treated confidentially by the bill drafter and without comment or criticism of the subject matter. The committee does not act as a censorship committee and the fact that a staff member may have assisted in drafting a bill does not affect standing or reception of a bill so far as the committee is concerned. Assembly members may or may not choose to have bills drafted by the service and there is no requirement that a bill be submitted to the bill drafting service before being introduced. LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY One need of state government is a modern legislative reference library. The library maintained by the Committee on Legislative Research continuously acquires books, pamphlets, periodicals and reports and the staff works closely with the staff of the Missouri State Library and the Supreme Court Library. Through its acquisitions, exchanges and loans with other libraries, the legislative library provides much of the material requested by members of the General Assembly for the analysis of public questions and provides a research tool for bill drafting and research services. The library staff is available to answer questions about the legislative process, bills before the general assembly and general reference questions concerning Missouri government. Questions may be emailed to the library at leg.library@lr.mo.gov or call the library at 573-751-4633. COURTESY RESOLUTIONS Courtesy resolutions continue to be of great importance to members of the General Assembly. More than 300 per month are prepared by the resolution-writers for a variety of observances. |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
