LRL Roundtable Follow-Up

June 20, 2008

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PAAT Members:

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend yesterday's roundtable discussion with Mary Camp and Melanie Harshman from the Legislative Reference Library (LRL).

We have posted Melanie's presentation as well as the handouts on our website which you can access by clicking here. Note that we have applied for CLE credit and will keep you posted.

Over the past few years the LRL has worked extensively to expand its services and is an extremely valuable resource for the legislative community. While the library offers a wide variety of products, from legislative research tools to a daily clipping service, below are links to information we found particularly helpful (click on underlined words to access the information):

Session Profiles: Summary of every legislative session and includes bills statistics (10,990 bills filed in the 80th session, of which 5900 passed and 54 were vetoed) and member profiles (144 males/36 females, 5 members under age 30/6 members over age 70 in 80th session).

Index to Sections Affected: Search legislation by code going back to the 74th session.

Vetoes: Tracks which governors had the most vetoes (Perry had 83 in 2001 and Edmund J. Davis used his pen almost as much in 1870 with 72) as well as link to all the bills that have been vetoed each session.

Texas Laws, Past and Present: Interactive and linkable timeline of Texas laws beginning with the Constitution in 1824.

Newspapers: Links to nearly every major daily and local newspaper.

Clipping Database: LRL also provides a clipping database that links legislation to news articles dealing with the associated issues. This database is only accessible through public terminals in the library.

If you have any questions about the LRL discussion or need assistance with any ethics-related questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

PAAT REMINDERS

AND UPDATES

JUNE REPORTING DATES

Click here for relevant reporting dates.

SAVE THE "MONTH"

PAAT is planning a members-only roundtable discussion with District Attorney Elect Rosemary Lehmberg in September. Stay tuned for more details.

2008 PAAT

INSTITUTE

This year's PAAT Institute will take place on Thursday, November 13, 2008 at Barton Creek Resort. We are currently finalizing the agenda and will send you more information in the coming weeks. If you have topics of interest please let us know as soon as possible.