Joint Order, To Amend the Joint Rules To Eliminate Concept Drafts

ORDERED, the Senate concurring, that the Joint Rules be amended by amending Joint Rule 208 to read:

Rule 208. Requirements for Drafting.

A request for a bill or resolve filed with the Revisor of Statutes is considered complete when the request is properly titled and accompanied by sufficient instructions, information and data required for its preparation. When a request is not accompanied by sufficient instructions, information or data, the Revisor of Statutes is directed to give written notice of inadequate information to the legislator. Upon receipt of said written notice, the legislator has 5 business days, unless an alternative period is set jointly by the presiding officers, to file adequate information with the Revisor of Statutes, or the request for the bill or resolve will be denied. Drafts prepared by an outside source must be filed in final form by the appropriate cloture date.

When directed by the sponsor, the Revisor of Statutes shall prepare a bill or resolve in concept form. The bill or resolve shall contain only an enacting clause and a summary of the proposed legislation and shall not be fully drafted by the Revisor of Statutes. The bill or resolve prepared in this form shall be printed and referred to a committee in the same manner as other legislation and may be reported in fully drafted form by that committee in the same manner as other legislation. This method of drafting legislation is not allowed for legislation submitted by the Governor, by agencies or departments of state government, by study commissions, or pursuant to statute. Any request for a bill or resolve submitted after cloture must state if it is a request for a concept draft. Any committee amendment must be germane to the detailed summary of the concept draft.