Legislative Information
HOW TO TRACK BILLS
First, consider a call to your local legislators. Their staffs have detailed information on many bills and can provide help in many cases.
To check on a bill yourself:
Florida Senate’s website: www.flsenate.gov
Florida House of Representatives’ website: www.myfloridahouse.com.
You can search for Senate and House bills with keywords and bill numbers on the left side of the page. Senate bills have even numbers and House bills will have odd numbers. Once you click on a bill, click on ‘staff analysis’ to find a fairly clear description of what the bill is intended to accomplish.
WARNING: Things can change quickly in Tallahassee. Only about one bill in four will become law, and many bills will be significantly altered over the next two months. Be sure and read the last action taken on a bill to find its present shape and condition when you are looking. Also, lawmakers routinely amend bills in the last days of the session. Often entire bills are amended onto another bill. The staff of a particular bill’s sponsors can tell you what happened to it.
Both House and Senate web sites allow you to sign up for “bill tracker” in which you are automatically notified when action occurs on the bill or bills you are following. There will also be a bill history on what happened at each stop on its way to go to the full House and Senate for a vote.
External Links:
Online Sunshine – The Florida Legislature’s Web site and shows action on bills, bill language and biographical information about individual legislators.
The Florida Channel – The Florida Channel’s three streaming web video channels can be accessed at this site.