California Legislative Bill Information Online Search Guide

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html
OCDE Legal Services
© 2010 by the Orange County Superintendent of Schools

Description
LegInfo Home Screen:
-Bill Information
Bill Information Home Page
-Session Year
-House Type
Bill Information Home Page
-Limit Results
-Bill Search Options
Bill Information Home Page
-Search by Bill Number
-“SB 1051” as sample bill search
Search Results Page
-What you see
Search Results Page for Bill Documents
-Status
-History
-Amended Version
-Introduced Version
Page(s)
1-2
3
4
5
6
7
Bill Status Page 8
Bill History Page 9
Bill Text Analysis Page 10
Bill Text Page 11

Description
Bill Information Home Page
-Search by Keywords
-“Diastat” as Sample Keyword search
Bill Documents
-Search Results from Keyword
Bill Information Home Page
-Search by Author
-“Huff” as sample Author
Search Results Page
-Bill List search results
Search Results Page
-Bill Documents results
Page(s)
12
13
14
15
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LegInfo Home Page:
• The Official California Legislative Information Website home page can be found
by typing in the following link:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov
• There are several links found on the home page for viewing specific information,
such as:
-Statutory Record
-Legislative Publications
-New Features
-Downloadable database
-Legislative Counsel
-Accessing California Legislative Information on the Internet
1

LegInfo Home Page:
• This Guide focuses on the “BILL INFORMATION” link on the home page and
how to access Assembly and Senate bills
• Click on the Bill Information box toward the bottom of the page
2

Bill Information Home Page
• To directly access the Bill Information Home Page and bypass the LegInfo Home
Page, type the following link into the web browser (i.e., Windows Internet
Explorer, Firefox Mozilla):
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html
• Select the Session Year of the search by clicking on the drop down arrow next to
the indicated year session – note that the Current Year will always be displayed on
the Bill Information home screen
• Select the House type by clicking on the drop down arrow next to the indicated
“House” and selecting either “Assembly,” “Senate,” or keep “Both”
3

Bill Information Home Page
• To the right of House Type, there is another drop down box that will allow the
number of hits the query will allow
• Select either “All” hits, “15,” “20,” “50,” “100,” “200” or “500” – note that the
default setting is “All” hits
• Below the three drop down boxes (“Session,” “House” and “Limit to”) the search
can be narrowed further by clicking on either the “Bill Number,” “Author(s)” or
“Keyword(s)”
• Type in the Bill Number, Author(s), or Keyword(s) in the white rectangle field
provided
• Click either “Search” to perform the search or “Clear” to enter new information
4

Bill Information Home Page
Search by Bill Number
• For purposes of this Guide, Senate Bill number 1051 (SB 1051) is used as an
example for conducting a search
• At the above screen, leave the information as-is for the top three drop down boxes
and enter SB 1051 in the white rectangle field and then click on the “Search” box
5

Search Results Page
• Once the search result is displayed (as shown above), click on the SB 1051 link to
view the details of the bill
6

Search Results Page
Bill Documents
• At this page, the Bill’s “Status” and its “History” may be viewed by clicking on the
respective links shown above
• the text of the Bill may be viewed in either a pdf format or an html format by
clicking on the preferred link
• Any Analyses of the Bill that are posted may be viewed as well
• Examples of the bill “Status,” “History,” and Bill text “Analysis” are shown on the
following pages
7

Bill Status Page
8

Bill History Page
9

Bill Text Analysis Page
10

Bill Text Page
• The above portion of the Bill’s text is shown in pdf format. As shown at the
bottom portion of the text, there are four pages to view and/or print
• Once the search has been completed, new searches may be performed by
returning to the Search Results Page or the Bill Information Page
11

Bill Information Home Page
Search by Keywords
• If a search needs to be performed but there is no Bill number information, click
on to the “keyword(s)” box and enter a keyword for the desired Bill in the space
provided in the white rectangular box
• The keyword “diastat” is used in the example above
• Click the search box
12

Search Results Page
• By entering the keyword “Diastat,” the Bill addressing Diastat (SB 1051) is found
• The status, history, analysis and text of the Bill may be viewed
• Click on either the “Amended” version or the “Introduced” version of the Bill in
either a pdf format or an html format
13

Bill Information Home Page
Search by Author(s)
• A search by “Author(s)” can also be performed by clicking on “Author”
• Type the last name of the author in the space provided in the white rectangular
box
• For the purposes of this Guide, “Huff” is the sample “Author” used above
• Click the search box
14

Search Results
Bill List
• The “Bill List” search results page for all Bills authored by “Huff” will be
displayed
• Scroll down to find the specific Bill being sought
• The title of the Bill is shown beside the asterisk directly underneath the
bill number
15

Search Results
Bill Documents
• After clicking on the SB 1051 *Emergency medical assistance:
administration, the Bill Documents page will be displayed (see page 7 of this
Guide for further viewing tips)
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