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 2/3rd 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.