Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WRKF/WWNO Newsroom.

Following Legislation's (Nearly) Paperless Trail

The deadline for pre-filing bills for the 2016 legislative session is just 30 days away. But where does the track for a bill actually start?

Louisiana House Clerk Alfred “Butch” Speer says the process starts with a member’s idea, which is then brought to one of the 80 people who work in the House Legislative Service Division.

“That professional staff goes through it and makes sure it fits with Louisiana law,” Speer explains. “Because too often those are ideas that are handed hem by some outside group or interest.”

Speer has served as House Clerk for 32 years, and has seen numerous changes in the bill processing process during that time. For example, he says he can’t remember the last time a representative hunted-and-pecked his way through drafting a bill all on his own.

“No more opening the book of Louisiana statutes next to the typewriter on a desk,” Speer reminisces, adding these days it’s all done via computer, by folks whose job is making sure lawmakers do it right.

“Forms are already pre-set in the database, so they just say I want to add this to it and I want to add that to it, and I make this change. Then they hit go and it spits out a bill.”

Speer says that proposed bill is transmitted electronically, with an authorization form that contains the legislator’s electronic signature. Then his job as Clerk is to read each and every bill before assigning it a number.

“Every bill that is introduced in the House passes through my grasp,” Speer states. “I have to review it in either generality or detail, and determine the advice I may have to give the Speaker on whether it should go forward—and what committee it should go to.”

He let me in on a little secret: the Speaker doesn’t read every bill.

“They always tell me that’s what they pay me for,” Speer says with a chuckle.

The Clerk says computers have certainly sped the whole process up, as well as making the proposed bills much more accessible to the public.

“Once it’s given to me, it becomes a public document,” Speer says of each bill filed. “Everyone in the world who has internet access will be able to see it.”

But, Speer admits, he’s personally “old school.”

“We do still make them hand me paper copies — and that’s mostly because of my convenience. I can write notes on them. I’m a scribbler.”