Entering Legislative Bills

Creating Legislative Bill Records

Assume you need to enter Senate bill SB145-123.

1.  Select Leg/Track> Bills.

2.  Enter the bill Number.

3.  Enter the Status of the bill. The status is user-defined; examples would be Open, Closed, or Floor.

4.  Enter the bill Title. While iMIS supports an extensive entry area, titles are usually relatively short.

5.  Enter the bill’s Author or multiple authors, separated by commas.

6.  Enter the bill’s Sponsor or multiple sponsors, separated by commas.

7.  Enter the Subject relating to the bill.

8.  Enter the bill’s Category. This is user-defined and can be used as selection criteria for reporting purposes.

9.  Enter the Last Action occurring with this bill, and accept or override the Date.

Legislative Bills window

Keeping the Action Log

Until this procedure is automated, you can populate the action log using the text from the Last Action section along with the date can be moved to the action log for history:

1.  Select Edit, and select (highlight) the text to be moved.

2.  Select Edit> Cut.

3.  Click on the Action Log button, and move the cursor to the location where you want to place the new text.

4.  Select Edit> Paste.

5.  Press OK to accept.

Action History window

Summarizing the Bill (Synopsis)

■    Select the Synopsis button in the top section.

Action History window

A Synopsis of the bill is entered and this section can contain an extensive amount of text. The bottom section, Analysis, is used for your organization’s analysis of the bill; again, this section can contain an extensive amount of text.