                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

REQUESTS FOR DRAFTING BILLS OR RESOLUTIONS; BILLS TO CONFORM TO REQUEST; PUBLIC
ACCESS (§ 30-28.18)

A. All requests for the drafting of bills or resolutions by the Division shall
be submitted in person, in writing, or by voice transmission. Each request shall
contain a general statement respecting the policies and purposes that the
requester desires incorporated in and accomplished by the bill. All written
requests shall be signed by the person submitting them. Neither the Director nor
any employee of the Division shall reveal to any person outside of the Division,
except to the Division of Legislative Automated Systems in fulfilling its duties
as provided in § 30-34.14, the contents or nature of any request or statements
except with the consent of the person signing such request. Exceptions to this
general rule are as follows:

   1. When the Director or an employee receives a request that is substantially
   the same as one previously received, he may, unless specifically directed not
   to do so by the person first submitting such request, so inform the person
   submitting the similar request;

   2. Unless specifically directed otherwise, the Director or employee may reveal
   the nature of a request when seeking information from anyone to assist in
   drafting the bill; and

   3. Copies of all floor substitute bills, conference committee reports, and
   substitute bills accompanying a conference committee report shall be placed in
   a secure electronic file immediately following the final drafting of the
   legislation and may be accessed by either the Clerk of the House of Delegates
   or the Clerk of the Senate or their employee designees after such legislation
   is offered for introduction in either house.
   				Bills drafted by the Division shall conform to the statements submitted
   with the request or any supplementary instructions submitted by the person who
   originally made the request.

B. All legislative drafting requests and accompanying documents shall be
maintained by the Division as permanent records. Each of these separate files
shall be considered the property of the requester and no one other than members
of the Division staff shall have access to any such file without the specific
approval of the requester.

C. All legislative drafting requests from the Governor, a Governor&#8217;s
Secretary, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, or the head of any
judicial, legislative, or independent agency shall be submitted to the Division
on or before the same deadline applicable to members of the General Assembly for
submitting legislative drafting requests for legislation to be prefiled to the
Division, as established by the procedural resolution adopted by the General
Assembly, or in default thereof, as adopted by the Joint Rules Committee.
Requests from the Governor may also be submitted in accordance with the
procedures established by the Rules Committees of the House of Delegates and the
Senate for the conduct of business during a legislative session.

HISTORY: 1966, c. 676; 1976, c. 112; 1988, c. 214; 1989, cc. 412, 512; 2001, cc.
568, 584; 2002, c. 2; 2005, c. 839; 2017, c. 489.