Duties and Responsibilities

The Legislative Commissioners' Office ("LCO") personnel:

• Draft bills and amendments, and engage in related legal research.

• Review all bills and resolutions favorably reported by legislative committees for statutory consistency, clarity, and constitutionality before they are voted upon by the General Assembly.

• Prepare and print file copies of each bill favorably reported by legislative committees and engross amendments into bills to create reprinted file copies and engrossed bills.

• Prepare and certify the accuracy of the final version of each bill (the engrossed bill) before it is signed by the Governor.

• Provide other legal services to the General Assembly including advice on statutes that govern the General Assembly, advice on legislative rules, reviewing proposed regulations submitted by state agencies, issuing opinions of law, preparing and construing contracts.

• Index and publish public acts and special acts of each session, codify the public acts, prepare histories of each enactment, prepare annotations of court cases construing statutory language, revise the Connecticut General Statutes, and biennially publish the revised general statutes.

Each LCO attorney is assigned to one or more legislative committees and develops an expertise in the areas of concern to the committee. In addition to drafting bills and amendments, the attorneys advise the committees on applicable state and federal statutes and regulations, and case law affecting the committees' jurisdiction.

The Legislative Commissioners' Office is under the supervision of two commissioners, one a Democrat and one a Republican, who are appointed by the General Assembly for staggered four-year terms. A nonpartisan director manages the day-to-day operations of the office. All full-time staff of LCO are nonpartisan.