Bill Status Report: Explanation

 

A.        Purpose of the Report. There are a number of steps in the Legislative process that each bill must pass through in order to become an enacted law. Updated after adjournment each day of the Session, the Bill Status Report (commonly referred to as the "Purple Sheet") may be used to find out how far a particular bill has progressed through the Legislative process.

 

Note: While the Legislature is in Session, members of the public can also obtain bill status information by calling the Bill Status Hotline toll-free within Wyoming at 1-800-342-9570.  Out-of-State callers should dial 307-777-6185 for this service.

 

B.  Steps in the Legislative Process.  Generally speaking, each House Bill or Senate File must pass through the following steps:

• Received for Introduction in the House of Origin ("House of Origin" is the House of Representatives in the case of a House bill, or the Senate in the case of a Senate File).
• Introduced (First Reading) in the House of Origin and referred to a Standing Committee. (Note: in a budget session introduction of bills other than the budget bill requires a 2/3^rd vote.)
• Scheduled for hearing in the Standing Committee.
• Reported back from the Standing Committee (with or without proposed amendments) and placed on General File in the House of Origin. ("General File" is simply a list of bills that are awaiting further action by the entire membership of the House or Senate sitting as the Committee of the Whole.)
• Considered in Committee of the Whole (CoW) in the House of Origin.
• Considered on Second Reading.
• Considered and final vote on Third Reading in the House of Origin.
• If passed, the bill is then sent to the Second House where it must pass through the same set of steps outlined above.
• If a bill is passed in identical form by both the House and Senate it is sent to the Governor for approval.
• If there are differences between the bill as passed by the House and Senate then the Second House will request that the House of Origin "concur" in the version of the bill as passed by the Second House.
• If the House of Origin does not concur, the bill is sent to a Joint Conference Committee (JCC) to work out the differences between the two houses.

 

Using the Bill Status Report you can locate what stage or step a particular bill has reached in this process.

 

C.  How to Read the Bill Status Report.

• Column 1 provides the Bill number.
• Column 2 indicates the Prime Sponsor of the Bill.
• Column 3 provides the catch title which is the short name commonly used to refer to the Bill.
• Column 4 indicates the date of the last formal action taken on the bill.  An asterisk (*) by this date indicates that the action was taken on the date the Bill Status Report was prepared.
• Column 5 has no heading but is used to indicate whether the bill has been amended in either house.  An "H" in this column indicates the bill was amended in the House of Representatives.  An "S" indicates that the bill was amended in the Senate. If the column is blank this indicates that to date no amendment to this bill has been adopted by either house.
• Column 6 indicates the last formal action taken on the bill.  Following are some common examples of actions that might be listed in this column:
• "S Failed Introduction 19-39" = The bill failed the 2/3 vote required for introduction in a budget session.
• "S Introduced and Referred to S02" = The bill has been introduced in the Senate and has been assigned to Standing Committee number 2 which is the Senate Appropriations Committee.
• "S Placed on General File" = This indicates the bill has been reported out of the Senate Standing Committee and has been placed on the General File list awaiting consideration in the Senate by the Committee of the Whole.
• "S Failed CoW 10-20; Indef Postponed" = the bill was considered in Committee of the Whole in the Senate but failed to pass Committee of the Whole by a vote of 10 Ayes and 20 Noes. The bill was subsequently "indefinitely postponed" which means it will not be considered further this session.
• "S Introduced and Referred to S02; No Report Prior to CoW Cutoff" = the bill was introduced in the Senate and assigned to the Senate appropriations committee. However, the committee did not report the bill out in time to be placed on General file prior to the cutoff date for bills to be considered in committee of the whole. There will likely be no further action taken on this bill during the session.

 

D.        Special Notes:

             1.         A bill assigned to a standing committee of the House or Senate may remain there for a number of days awaiting consideration by the Standing Committee.  To find out when a bill will be scheduled for hearing in Standing Committee check the "Committee Meeting Calendars" on this Web site.

             2.         A bill may similarly remain on General File for several days prior to being scheduled for consideration by the Committee of the Whole.  If time runs short, the bill may, in fact, never be considered in Committee of the Whole.

             3.         Once a bill is considered in Committee of the Whole it will normally be taken up on Second and Third reading on the next two consecutive days of the Session.

             4.         A bill assigned to a standing committee will be "reported out" of the standing committee and placed on General File, only if the standing committee adopts one of the following positive motions:

• Do Pass
• Amend and Do Pass
• Do Not Pass
• No Recommendation

If none of these motions is made on the bill in Committee, of if one of the foregoing positive motions is made in the standing committee but fails, the bill will remain in the Standing Committee's possession until the end of the session and will continue to be listed in the Bill Status Report as "Introduced and Referred to ___".

             5.         At a certain point during the Session a "cutoff" date is established for bills to be considered in Committee of the Whole. Absent some extraordinary circumstance, bills still in committee or otherwise missing this cutoff will generally receive no further action during the session.

             6.         Beginning around mid-session, the Bill Status Report (Purple Sheet) lists bills in the following order: (1) Active Bills; (2) Enrolled Acts; and (3) Inactive Bills.  "Inactive Bills" are those that have failed, missed a cut-off deadline for consideration, or will otherwise not move forward in the legislative process absent some extraordinary action.