Pennsylvania Act 1923-119 — LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU CREATED

Act text

AN ACT

Creating a Legislative Reference Bureau; providing for the election of a director by the General Assembly; designating the officers and employes of such bureau, defining their duties; fixing their salaries; abolishing the present Legislative Reference Bureau; and making an appropriation.

Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That a Legislative Reference Bureau is hereby created for the use and information of the Members of the General Assembly, the Governor, and the heads of the departments of the State Government, and such citizens of the Commonwealth as may desire to consult the same. The bureau shall be located in the State Library Building. The Legislative Reference Bureau as now existing is hereby abolished.

Section 2. The Legislative Reference Bureau shall be in charge of a director, who shall be elected, as soon as may be after the passage of this act and biennially thereafter before the first day of February, each odd-numbered year, by the Senate and House of Representatives in joint session. The director of the present Legislative Reference Bureau in office at the time of the approval of this act shall, until an election is held under this act, hold the office of Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau created by this act, subject to removal by the General Assembly.

Section 3. The Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau shall be qualified by experience, knowledge, and ability to conduct the work of the bureau. He shall be well versed in legislative procedure and parliamentary practice, and shall in such matters, when called upon, be ex officio advisor to the General Assembly. He shall give bond in the sum of ten thousand dollars for the faithful performance of his duties, and he shall devote his whole time and attention to the duties of his office. He shall have access to the Law Library and the publications therein of the various State Governments and the United States Government, which may be generally classed as legislative documents. He shall receive a salary of eight thousand, two hundred fifty ($8,250) dollars per annum.

((3) amended July 5, 1947, P.L.1299, No.521)

Section 4. The director shall appoint an assistant director, learned in the law, who shall be a skilled bill drafter, and who shall receive a salary to be fixed by the director. The assistant director shall perform the duties of the director in the case of a vacancy in said office or in case of the absence or inability of the director to act, and he shall also perform such other duties as may be assigned to him by the director.

(4 amended July 5, 1947, P.L.1299, No.521)

Section 5. The director shall also appoint a trained librarian and such attorneys-at-law, clerks, secretaries, stenographers, typists, messengers and other employes, as he deems necessary, and for such periods, and on such terms, as he deems advantageous to conduct the work of the bureau at all times. The director shall fix the number and compensation of all such employes within the limits of appropriations made in advance by the General Assembly.

(5 amended July 5, 1947, P.L.1299, No.521)

Section 6. The bureau shall continue to occupy the rooms in the State Library Building now occupied by the Legislative Reference Bureau, abolished by this act, so as to give it ready access to the volumes, catalogues, documents, and other papers in the State Library, and where the bureau will be convenient to the Members of the General Assembly and other persons having official business with the bureau. The bureau shall be kept open on business days from nine ante meridian to four post meridian during the entire year, and, when the General Assembly is in session, at such hours, day and night, as are most convenient to its members.

Section 7. The director shall prepare, and have available for use, indices of Pennsylvania laws, digests of such public laws of this and other States as may be of use for legislative information, records and files of all bills and resolutions presented in either branch of the General Assembly, loose leaf files of acts of Assembly, catalogue files of such reports of departments, boards, and commissions, and other public documents of this State, as well as general books and pamphlets, as pertain to the work and service of the bureau, files of newspaper and periodical clippings, and of such other printed matter as may be proper for the purposes of the bureau. The director shall also, when requested by members of the General Assembly or the Governor or heads of departments, promptly procure available information, not on file in the bureau, relating to legislation of other States, and investigate the manner in which laws have operated. He shall establish a system of exchanges with such other States as is expedient and practicable. He shall from time to time prepare and publish such bulletins, pamphlets, and circulars, containing information collected by the bureau, and such compilations of this or other States, as he shall deem to be of service to the Governor, the several departments of the State Government, the Members of the General Assembly, and the citizens of the Commonwealth. From time to time he shall cause to be prepared, for adoption or rejection by the General Assembly, codes, by topics, of the existing general statutes, arranged by chapters or articles and sections under suitable headings, and he shall add thereto lists of statutes of the existing law to be repealed. He shall assist in or supervise, when called upon by any proper authority, or when directed by the General Assembly so to do, the compilation and preparation of any general revision and codifications of the existing laws of the Commonwealth.

Section 8. The director and his assistants shall neither oppose nor urge legislation, but shall, upon request, aid and assist the Members of the General Assembly, the Governor, and the heads of departments, by advising as to bills and resolutions, and by drafting the same into proper form, and by furnishing to them the fullest information upon all matters within the scope of the bureau relating to their public duties. No officer or employe of the bureau shall reveal to any person outside of the bureau the contents or nature of any matter not yet published, without the consent of the person bringing such matters before the bureau.

Section 9. The bureau shall be available for consultation freely by citizens of the Commonwealth as to such general information as it may be able to furnish and as to the statutory law of this or any other State on particular subjects, and shall furnish to citizens, upon request, copies of such laws as are available for distribution, but in no case and under no circumstances shall any officer or employe in his official capacity furnish any opinion on any legal matter to any private citizen.

Section 10. The printing and binding necessary for the proper performance of the duties of the bureau or the proper preservation of material shall be done by the State Printer, upon the order of the Superintendent of Public Printing and Binding, upon requisition of the director. The Board of Commissioners of Public Grounds and Buildings shall, upon request of the director, furnish the bureau with such books, stationery, supplies, furniture, et cetera, as may be needed for the proper conduct of the affairs of the bureau.