CHAPTER 6 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

• Jurisdiction: United States

Chapter 6 Legislative History

This chapter begins with an overview of the legislative process in Oregon; through that process, the statutory laws of Oregon are enacted and changed. The chapter then describes the process of bill tracking, monitoring the status of a current bill that may or may not ultimately be enacted. Lawyers track bills that may affect a client's interests when they are acting in an advisory role.

Next, the chapter explains how to research the legislative history of a statute that has already been enacted. Legislative history research is most often relevant in litigation, when a lawyer needs to convince a court to interpret an ambiguous statute in a way that is favorable to the client's position. Understanding the legislative process is important here because that process produces documents that may help determine the legislature's intent in passing a statute, which is a key to statutory interpretation. This chapter also includes a brief introduction to Oregon's initiative and referendum processes, which also affect state legislation. The chapter ends with an overview of federal legislative sources.

Researchers who frequently turn first to commercial services like Lexis Advance or Westlaw should realize that Oregon state websites have valuable information— for free — that is not available on the commercial sites. Thus, even researchers who begin their Oregon legislative history research on Lexis Advance or Westlaw will need to refer to the state websites. The most important state websites for Oregon legislative history research are listed below:

• Oregon State Legislature—www.oregonlegislature.gov
• Oregon Legislation Information Service—https://olis.leg.state.or.us/
• Oregon Secretary of State—sos.oregon.gov/archives/Pages/records.aspx.

I. The Legislative Process

The Oregon Legislative Assembly consists of a Senate, with thirty members, and a House of Representatives, with sixty members. The Assembly meets annually, though the regular sessions in odd-numbered years are much longer than those in even-numbered years.¹ The general process of enacting or amending laws in Oregon is similar to that in other states and in the United States Congress. Table 6-1 shows the basic progression of an idea from bill to statute and notes the documents that are important in legal research.

Table 6-1. How a Bill Becomes a Law

Legislative Action An idea for legislation is suggested by a citi- zen, group, or legislator. A legislator or leg- islative committee sponsors the bill, and the legislative counsel drafts the language. The bill is introduced in either the House or Senate. It is read for the first time and as- signed to a committee. The committee holds public hearings and work sessions and acts to pass the bill, pass the bill with amendments, or not pass the bill. If the bill is passed by the committee, it goes back to the full chamber (House or Senate) for a second and third reading. That chamber votes to pass, not pass, or refer the bill back to committee. If the bill is not passed, it dies. If the bill is passed by this chamber, it goes to the second chamber for the first reading, and then it is assigned to a committee. The committee holds public hearings and work sessions and acts to pass the bill, pass the bill with amendments, or not pass the bill. If the bill is not passed, it dies. Documents Produced The text of a bill is obviously important; if enacted, the bill's requirements or prohibitions may affect a client's interests. Even if a modified version is passed, comparing the original to the final version can help determine the legislature's intent. In Oregon, the video and audio recordings of hearings and work sessions are important parts of the legislative history. In addition, the orig- inal bill file contains a staff analysis, explain- ing the need for and goals of the legislation. A bill passed with amendments is called an A-en- grossed bill (abbreviated A-Eng.). Audio recordings of floor proceedings are available from the state archives. Votes are avail- able in the journals of the House and Senate. Additional legislative history, of the type de- scribed above, is produced in the second cham- ber. If the bill is amended for a second time, it is reprinted as a B-engrossed bill.

Table 6-1. How a Bill Becomes a Law, continued

Legislative Action If the second chamber passes the bill in the same form as the first chamber, it is enrolled and sent to the Governor. If the bill is passed with amendments, it goes back to the first chamber for a vote on the changes. If needed, a conference committee is appointed with leg- islators from both chambers, who work out the differences. When the two chambers con- cur on the final bill, it is sent to the Governor. If the bill is not passed, it dies. If the Governor signs the bill, it becomes law. If the Governor does not sign the bill within a certain period, it becomes law without signa- ture. If the Governor vetos the bill, a two-thirds vote in both chambers will override the veto. The enacted bill is assigned a session law num- ber; in Oregon this is called a chapter number. This is a chronological number based on when the bill was passed in that session of the leg- islature. The law is codified, meaning that it is assigned a number that places it with other laws on similar topics. Documents Produced The final version of the bill that is sent to the Governor is the enrolled bill. Some veto statements of Governors are pub- lished in the journals of the House and Sen- ate. Session laws are published in numerical order in Oregon Laws. Oregon statutes are codified in Oregon Re- vised Statutes.

Source: Based on "How an Idea Becomes Law" on the Oregon Legislature's website under "Citizen Engagement."

II. Oregon Bill Tracking

Of the many bills that are introduced in each legislative session, some may affect the rights of a client by proposing new laws or amending existing laws. In advising a client, an attorney needs to learn of any bills on topics relevant to the client's interest and follow their progress through the process outlined above. Note that regular bills introduced in the Oregon House of Representatives begin with HB (for "House bill") while bills introduced in the Senate begin with SB (for "Senate bill").

A. Searching with a Bill Number

If you know the number of a bill that you need to track, you can do so easily on the Oregon Legislature Information System (OLIS) website at no charge. Go to https://olis.leg.state.or.us/, and first click on the "Session" icon at the top right of the OLIS page so that you can select the current session. Then click on the "Bills" icon at the top right of the OLIS page, and enter the bill's number (e.g., 1511). The resulting page will begin with an overview of the bill. You can use various tabs and links on that page to view the bill's text, read staff analysis of the bill, review amendments, track its history thus far, see its current status and scheduled events, etc. See Figure 6-1 for an example from the 2016 Regular Session.

You can also begin bill tracking on the Oregon State Legislature's website (see Figure 5-1 in the last chapter), but links on that website frequently take you to OLIS. For example, if you open the "Bills and Laws" page on the legislature's website and enter the bill number in the search box for "Search Bills," clicking on any of the results will take you to OLIS. Similarly, if you open the "Bills and Laws" tab, look under "Bills," and click on the "Current Session Details" link, you will be redirected to OLIS.

Bill tracking is available on both Lexis and Westlaw. The following are examples of searches that will lead to information related to the bill described in Figure 6-1. On Lexis Advance, type bill 1511 into the universal search bar, then select "Statutes and Legislation" for category and "Oregon" as the jurisdiction. On Westlaw, type Oregon Senate Bill 1511 into the universal search bar.

The Oregonian newspaper provides a unique bill tracking service from gov.oregonlive.com/bill. For each bill, the site lists sponsors, measure activity, votes of individual assembly members, and links to relevant news articles. It also provides a link to the OLIS site for the bill.

B. Learning about Pending Bills

1. Searching with Terms

If you do not know the bill number, or if you need to learn whether there even is pending legislation that affects your work, you can begin with the OLIS "Bills" icon (after selecting the current session, of course). Under the "Bill Text" tab, enter search terms as shown in Figure 6-2, and you will receive a list of bills with those terms. Clicking one of the resulting links (e.g., "SB 1511"), takes you to the OLIS Overview of the bill, which is shown in Figure 6-1.

Figure 6-1. Oregon Bill Overview

Source: Oregon Legislative Information System.

You can conduct a similar search from the Oregon Legislature's website. Enter search terms into the "Search Bills" box on the home page, select the current session on the left side of the results page, and select one of the bill results. You will be redirected to an OLIS page with the text of that bill. You can then select the "Overview" tab for general information about the bill.

Databases on Lexis and Westlaw allow you to search by keywords to find information about bills that might affect your client's situation. On Lexis Advance, three useful databases include "OR Bill Tracking Reports," with a bill summary as well as legislative events related to each bill in the current session; "OR Full-Text Bills," with the text of all pending legislation; and "Oregon Advance Legislative Service," with the text of all enacted laws during the session. All are easily located using "Browse" and searching under "Sources." The "Bill Tracking" database is the most current, with information provided within two days of publication. On Westlaw, similar material is included in the database "Oregon Proposed Legislation (Bills)." You...