LEGISLATIVE HANDBOOK

CHAPTER I

THE LEGISLATIVE SERVICE OFFICE

1.         CREATION.

The Legislative Service Office (LSO) was created by Act of the Forty-First Legislature, Chapter 113, Session Laws of Wyoming 1971.  It commenced operations on March 1, 1971.

2.         OPERATION UNDER DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT COUNCIL.

(a)        Policies, rules and regulations governing the general operations of the Office and its relationship to legislative committees and individual legislators are made by the Management Council.  The Council is composed of 13 members consisting of the Senate and House leadership, plus 2 at large members from the Senate and 2 from the House selected by party caucus, and 1 additional at large member.

(b)        The LSO Director is employed by and subject to the direction of the Management Council.  Other employees are employed by the Director with the approval of the Management Council.  The staff is selected and services are performed on a nonpartisan basis.

(c)        The LSO staff is not subject to state personnel rules and compensation, while comparable with similar executive branch positions, is determined by the Management Council.

3.         OFFICE FUNCTIONS.

(a)        Services provided by the Legislative Service Office include:

(i)         Research and bill drafting services for legislative committees and for individual legislators, including prefiling and distribution of proposed legislation prior to legislative sessions;

(ii)        Revision and recompilation of the laws of Wyoming; preparation of copy and contracting for the printing and publication of all revisions, compilations, session laws, journals and digests;

(iii)       Accounting for all legislative expenditures, supplies and properties;

(iv)       Members of the office staff prepare administrative rule reviews and reports for the Management Council, conduct performance evaluations of executive agency programs under the direction of the Management Audit Committee, and conduct fiscal studies and budget analyses for the Joint Appropriations Committee.

4.         LEGISLATIVE SERVICE OFFICE STRUCTURE.

The Legislative Service Office (LSO) consists of: the Legal Services Division; the Budget and Fiscal Section; the Program Evaluation Section; the Information Technology Section; and the Administrative/Clerical and Technical staffs.  The Office is structured as indicated in the Chart at Appendix 2.

(a)        Legal Services Division.

This Division provides general and legal research services and bill drafting for committees and individual legislators.  The Division also performs reviews of agency rules and regulations as required by law under the Administrative Rule Review process.  For more information on bill drafting, see Chapter IV of this Handbook.

(b)        Budget and Fiscal Section.

LSO Budget Analysts: (1) Provide support to the Joint Appropriations Committee, other Interim Committees and individual legislators on budget matters specifically and state expenditures generally; (2) Develop information on revenues working in conjunction with the state's Consensus Revenue Estimating Group; and (3) Prepare fiscal notes for proposed legislation.  For additional information relating to the responsibilities of the budget/fiscal staff, see Chapter VII of this Handbook.

(c)        Program Evaluation Section.

LSO program evaluators review state government agency programs under the direction of the Management Audit Committee.  A program evaluation focuses on whether an agency or agency program is accomplishing the results intended by the Legislature.  For additional information concerning Program Evaluation, see Chapter VIII of this Handbook.

(d)        Information Technology Section.

LSO information technology personnel provide computer support for the LSO staff, the session staff and the legislature.  Computer support for the staff includes hardware/software purchase and maintenance, training, and application development.  Support for legislators includes hardware/software purchase and maintenance of the legislators' laptop computers, installing and maintaining computer phone lines on the floor of each chamber for use by legislators during the session, maintaining a Web site on the Internet, and establishing legislator E-mail accounts.  The Section also is responsible for maintaining and distributing to the public the Wyoming Statutes on CD rom and diskette.

(e)        School Finance Audit Section

The LSO School Finance Audit Section is responsible for establishing and operating a system to audit school finance data necessary to operate the school finance system. This function was required of LSO in legislation enacted in 1998 as part of the response to the Supreme Court's school finance decision.  This section does not perform audits but oversees a system of agreements under which audits are performed by CPA firms.

5.         OFFICE PHILOSOPHY AND OPERATION.

The LSO is the nonpartisan staff office of the Wyoming Legislature providing personal staff services to legislators. In addition to technical and administrative support services, the LSO can answer questions about state government and develop information legislators need to be effective.

The primary mission of the LSO is to help legislators identify and articulate issues, develop information, identify possible solutions and provide information about the pros and cons of those solutions (including constitutional issues and administrative and practical problems.)  Members of the staff are careful not to advocate for or against a particular bill or a policy position.

6.         LEGISLATIVE BUDGET.

The Legislature now operates on the same two year budget cycle as the other two branches of state government. 

7.         BILL DRAFTING.

For information on bill drafting, see Chapter IV of this Handbook.

8.         ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES.

Administrative services provided by the LSO are outlined in Chapter II of this Handbook.

9.         LSO UPDATE.

When the Legislature is not in Session, all Legislators periodically receive the LSO Update which contains a variety of information of importance to Legislators.  It also contains a calendar of scheduled Interim Committee meetings and a list of notices of proposed rulemaking by state agencies.

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