North Carolina General Assembly - Legislative Drafting Division

Welcome

The Legislative Drafting Division of the North Carolina General Assembly provides assistance to legislators in the preparation of bill drafts and bill introductions. In addition to the Director, this Division is staffed by legal analysts (primarily attorneys) and clerical staff. The enrolling, proofreading, and bill typing sections are located administratively within the Legislative Drafting Division.

Please visit The Drafting Process to learn more about our Division. Visit the Staff Directory to see who works in our Division.

Also, you will find Links to websites that we find helpful in our Division.

05-12-2009

Number of Bill Filings Is Down This Session

We're now past the final deadlines for most bill introductions in the 2009 long session of the North Carolina General Assembly (resolutions and a few specific types of bills, such as redistricting bills, can still be filed). Total bill filings dropped by 23.6%, with a 19.4% drop in the House and a 29.2% drop in the Senate. When factoring out companion (i.e., identical) bills, there were 26% less total filings.

Here are comparison stats from 2009 and filings at that same point in the 2007 session:

	House	Senate	Total
2009:	1651	1101	2752
2007:	2049	1555	3604
Change:	-19.4%	-29.2%	-23.6%%

A companion bill is the same bill as another filed in the other house (they might be filed at the same time or later in the session). In 2007, there were 1137 companions, in 2009 there have been 926. Factoring these out, here's how many different bills were filed:

2009:	1826
2007:	2467
Change:	-26.0%

The total bill drafting requests dropped by 16.6% between 2007 and 2009. The disparity between this number and the total bills filed indicates a sharp uptick in drafting reuqests that did not result in bills being filed. In 2007, a total of 3,948 drafting requests were made, resulting in 2,467 filings (62.7%), while in 2009 3,627 requests were made with 1,826 bills filed (50.3%).

In 2007, there were 24 House bills and resolutions and 20 Senate bills and resolutions filed after the deadlines.

02-28-2009

Number of Bill Requests Similar to the Last Long Session

As of today, substantive bill requests received in 2009 compared with the same point in the 2007 session are down 0.22% (from 1818 to 1814). Blank bill requests have dropped from 66 to 26.

	2007	2009	Change (2007 to 2009)
Research Division	206	228	+10.68%
Legislative Drafting Division	1678	1612	-3.93%
Blanks	66	26	-60.61%
Total	1884	1840	-2.34%
Substantive Total (Not Including Blank Bills)	1818	1814	-0.22%

01-28-2009

Bill Drafting Deadlines for the 2009 Long Session

House Deadlines:

Type	To Bill Drafting by 4pm	Filed in House by 3pm
Local Bills	Wednesday, March 18	Wednesday, April 1
Public Bills (Not Appropriations or Finance)	Wednesday, March 26	Wednesday, April 8
Appropriations and Finance Bills	Wednesday, April 22	Wednesday, May 6

Senate Deadlines:

Type	To Bill Drafting by 4pm	Filed in House by 3pm
Local Bills	Tuesday, March 3	Wednesday, March 11
Public Bills & Resolutions	Friday, March 13	Wednesday, March 25

Crossover Deadline: Thursday, May 14

01-22-2009

Pre-Session Bill Drafting Requests Increase Slows

Examining bill drafting requests from one week before session in 2009 versus 2007 we see a much smaller increase as of today, one week before session, than the snapshot from two weeks ago when it was up over 20% session to session as of three weeks before opening gavel.

	2007	2009	Change
Research Division	109	97	-11.01%
Legislative Drafting Division	424	457	7.78%
Total	533	554	3.94%

01-08-2009

Pre-Session Bill Drafting Requests for 2009 Compared with 2007

As of 21 calendar days before the 2009 session, compared with 21 calendar days before the 2007 session, the number of bill requests received has increased. This may be a result of study committees being more active than usual.

	2007	2009	Change
Research Division	66	76	15.15%
Legislative Drafting Division	288	351	21.88%
Total	354	427	20.62%

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