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.
- 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 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.