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About Latest Version of Bills
A.
Which Version of a Bill is Current?
To identify the current version of a bill, it is
important to know the various stages a bill goes through, in chronological
order:
-
Proposed Bill or "PB":
a bill introduced by
an individual legislator, which is referred to the appropriate committee.
-
Committee Bill or "CB":
a bill that (1) is drafted in full statutory language for a
committee and (2) is based on a proposed bill.
-
Raised Bill or "RB":
a bill that (1) is drafted in full statutory language for a
committee and (2) was initiated by that committee.
-
Favorable or "FAV":
a bill recommended by a vote of the committee
for approval by the House, Senate or other committee.
Note:
In connection with this
vote, the committee (1) may make changes in the bill, in which case it
is called a
"Favorable Substitute", and (2) reports the bill either to
another committee, or
to the House or Senate.
-
File Copy or "FC":
a Favorable
bill that a committee reported to the House or Senate.
Note:
This is the version of
the bill that the House and Senate votes on. If there is more
than one File Copy of
a bill, the File with the highest number is the most recent.
-
Amendment:
Changes to a File Copy of a bill.
Amendments found in the General Assembly's web site for Legislative
Information have been
filed by the introducer or adopted by either the House or the Senate or
by both. Amendments often
refer to changes
in line numbers. Those are the line numbers in the bill's File
Copy.
Note:
If a bill has more than
one File Copy number, amendments to the lower File Copy number
are typically
incorporated in the File Copy that has the higher number.
Note:
When an Amendment begins with "Strike
everything after the enacting clause and substitute the following in
lieu thereof",
the bill consists only of the language in that Amendment and in
subsequent amendments to
the bill.
B. Finding Bills With Line Numbers
To find a bill with line numbers, click on
"Search for Bills of Interest to You", below, and follow the
directions to
search for a bill. After you complete your search, if you see the
"pdf"
logo after a bill number at the top of a page, click on that logo, and you will
obtain the
bill with line number.
Please note that reading a "pdf" bill requires you to have Adobe
Acrobat Reader software. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, you may
download it for free from
Adobe's web site by clicking on the following:
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader.
C. Search for Bills of Interest
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