Under existing law, the Legislative Council, the House members of the Legislative Council, the members of the Senate elected to the Legislative Council, the Joint Committee on Administrative Regulation Review, the Legislative Committee on Public Accounts, the Joint Fiscal Committee, the Legislative Building Authority, the Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment, the Legislative Reference Service, and the Legislative Fiscal Office have statutorily imposed functions with regard to supervising certain staff services and performing specified legislative functions.
This bill would abolish those entities, create a Joint Committee on Legislative Operations, the House Committee on House Administration, the Senate Committee on Senate Administration, and the Legislative Services Agency and transfer the functions of the entities to the joint committee, the two single house committees, and the agency.
The bill, among other things, would provide for the membership of the committees; assign the agency the responsibility of recommending persons for employment by the Examiners of Public Accounts and the Alabama Law Institute, establishing their salaries, and additional responsibilities for budgeting, accounting, and general administrative functions for all entities in the Legislative Department; provide for the appointment by the committee of the Director of Legislative Services; and require the agency to maintain a website listing legislative expenditures that would include the names and salaries of and any expenses paid to employees in the Legislative Department and any contracts into which the agency enters on behalf of any entity in the Legislative Department.
Existing law also provides for additional funding for the Legislature when available funds are less than a specified amount. This bill would repeal that provision.
Under existing law, the Alabama Law Institute has such members, officers, and committees as determined by the Board of Commissioners of the Alabama State Bar. The institute also has a governing council consisting of ex officio, appointed, and elected positions.
This bill would specify that the institute is a part of the Legislative Department, would transfer powers previously granted to the Alabama State Bar to the council, would revise the membership of the council, would specify the director would be appointed by the President of the Alabama Law Institute, and would authorize the director to employ the staff for the institute.
Source: Alabama Legislature