Glossary of Legislative Terms

• Act: A bill approved by both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor, or allowed to become law without signature, or passed by the legislature over the governor's veto.
• Adoption: A motion used to describe final action taken on all amendments and conference committee reports. Each house may adopt or refuse to adopt an amendment or report.
• Amendment: A proposal to change a bill, joint resolution, or resolution by adding, deleting, or substituting language. (See also simple and substitute amendment.)
• Appropriation: The setting aside of public revenues for a specific use or program.
• Author(s): The legislator or legislative committee that introduces a bill or resolution. Members of the same house who sign the bill are referred to as co-authors.
• Bill: An idea, drafted in legal language, to change current law by adding new language, deleting old language, or amending existing language.
• Bill Book--bills are numbered consecutively as introduced and all bills, as they are printed, are placed in bill books, or binders, in numerical order. All legislators, and many other persons who work with the legislature, are provided with bill books.
• Calendar: The daily schedule of business for each house that shows the order in which proposals and other business will be taken up on the floor.
• Committee: A group of legislators appointed to hold public hearings or otherwise consider proposals within certain subject areas and recommend some of them for further consideration on the floor. (See also conference committee, special committee, and standing committee.)
• Concurrence: A measure that has passed one house is sent to the second house for agreement or concurrence. The second house may concur or may refuse to concur.
• Conference Committee: A committee consisting of members of both houses to work out their differences when the 2 houses pass different versions of the same bill.
• Constituents: People who live in a given senate or assembly district.
• Executive Session: A committee meeting where committee members vote on the disposition of a bill or other proposal. Only committee members may speak in an executive session.
• First Reading: The formal announcement on the floor of the legislature that a bill or other proposal has been introduced.
• Floor Debate: Discussion of a proposal in the Senate or Assembly chambers. A bill being debated is referred to as being "on the floor."
• Joint Resolution: A proposal that makes a request, affects operations of both houses, pays tribute to public figures, or proposes a constitutional amendment that is acted on by both houses but does not require approval by the governor.
• Joint Standing Committee: A permanent committee made up of members from both houses of the legislature.
• Journals: The official record of legislative business kept by each house of the legislature. They do not keep a record of floor debate.
• Lobbyists: People who are paid to represent various interest groups before the legislature.

• Override: The legislature may pass a measure over the governor's objections by voting to override a veto by a two-thirds majority of members present in both houses.
• Parliamentary Procedure: The rules and rulings under which legislatures conduct their business.
• Public Hearing: Meetings held by committees at which members of the public, lobbyists, legislators, and state agency representatives may speak or register for or against a proposal.
• Resolution: A proposal that makes a request, affects the operations of one house, including amending its rules, that requires no action by the 2nd house.
• Roll Call Vote: A vote in which members' votes are recorded with their names.
• Rules: The detailed code of parliamentary procedure adopted by each house at the beginning of each session. They prescribe the way in which the legislature does business and provide methods for settling disputes. In addition to the rules of each house, there are also joint rules.
• Second Reading: The www at which amendments to proposals are considered.
• Section: There are sections of the statutes and sections of bills or acts. A section of the statutes is the primary division of a statute chapter, for example Section 13.01. Sections are also the divisions in bills or acts.
• Simple Amendment: It changes some portion of a bill or other proposal by adding, deleting, or substituting language. It is an instruction to do something to the measure.
• Special Committee: A committee appointed to examine legislation on a particular topic. Sometimes called a select committee, it automatically ceases to exist when its task is finished or when the session ends.
• Standing Committee: Committees established by the rules of each house to examine legislation, hold hearings, and make recommendations on legislative measures. They may be abolished or created only by changing the rules.
• Sustain: To uphold the governor's action following a veto or partial veto of a bill.
• Table: A motion in parliamentary procedure to temporarily set aside a measure and attend to other business.
• Third Reading: The www at which bills and other proposals come up for final discussion and possible passage. No amendments may be offered at this point.
• Veto: A bill passed by the legislature that the governor rejects in its entirety.
• Veto Message: For each bill vetoed or partially vetoed, the governor must explain the reasons for the veto in a message to the legislature.

 Legislative Research Council: Glossary of Legislative Terms