Bills are proposed legislation introduced by either house of the legislature. A bill creates new laws or amends or repeals existing law.
Abbreviations:
Memorials are a legislative measure containing a request or proposal to a named recipient (President of the United States, Congress, or federal agencies). They petition a recipient to act on an issue that the Arizona Legislature does not have jurisdiction to act upon itself. Memorials are merely requests and have no official standing or effect. Memorials may be presented for consideration in either one house (simple) or both houses (concurrent).
Resolutions are a declaration of legislative opinion, will, intent, or resolve in matters within the legislature's legal purview. There are three types of resolutions:
Each type of proposed legislation (Senate bill, House bill, Senate joint resolution, House joint resolution, etc.) receives its own numbering and is numbered consecutively in the order they are introduced. Proposed legislation originating in the Senate begins numbering at 1001, while legislation originating in the House of Representatives begins numbering at 2001. At the start of each Legislature (which is two years in length), the numbering begins again at 1001 (Senate) and 2001 (House of Representatives). Proposed legislation not passed by the time the legislative session ends must be reintroduced in the new Legislature to be considered. It will receive a new number. Therefore, it is useful to know either the year or the Legislature in which the proposed legislation was introduced.
There may be several versions of proposed legislation. Either the House or Senate (or both) may pass amendments that change the text of the bill, resolution or memorial. When amended, it is either reprinted with the amending language incorporated into it or the amendment(s) may be printed separately.
Bill tracking is the process used to follow the path that proposed legislation has followed once introduced in the Legislature. It can be used to track current legislation to see if it is near passage or rejection. It can also be used retrospectively on older proposed legislation.
The following online sources contain bills, memorials, and resolutions and their variations.
Arizona State Legislature (ALIS) This website contains the full-text of Arizona bills from the 42nd Legislature (1995) to the present.
Westlaw Patron Access (Law Library Access Only) *For the following links to work, you must open Westlaw Patron Access first:
LexisNexis (Available to Law Faculty and Law Students only)
Westlaw (Available to Law Faculty and Law Students only)
The Law Library has copies of bills, memorials, and resolutions as they were introduced.
Hayden Library has the following sources, which provide the introduced version of a bill, memorial or resolution.
This microfilm set contains the legislative histories of proposed legislation including several versions of proposed legislation. This set includes memorials and resolutions.
The Senate Resource Center 1700 W. Washington Street 1st floor, Senate Building Telephone: 602-542-3559
The Senate Resource Center maintains bill, resolution, and memorial files from 1967. These bill files contain the introduced version of proposed legislation and all of it subsequent versions.
Clerk of the House 1700 W. Washington Street 2nd Floor, House of Representatives Building Telephone: 602-542-4221
The Clerk of the House maintains a collection of bill, resolution and memorial files from 1971. Like the Senate Resource Center, these files contain the introduced version of proposed legislation and all of its subsequent versions.
By Connie Strittmatter; updated 6/06.
JOHN J. ROSS - WILLIAM C. BLAKLEY LAW LIBRARY PO BOX 877806 • 1102 S MCALLISTER AVE • TEMPE, AZ 85287-7806 • 480-965-6144 • FAX: 480-965-4283