Transcript MLIS site powerpoint short - Carroll County Republican

How To Use the
Maryland General Assembly
Web Site
How to Find Bills
How to Find Fiscal Notes
How to Find Legislator Contact
Where to Ask Questions and Order Constitutions
Presentation by Cindy Sharretts
Slide Show by Kathy Fuller,
for the Carroll County Republican Women’s Club
How to use this power point
Bring up the Maryland General Assembly
web site at http://mlis.state.md.us.
Then page through the power point while
clicking on the web site where shown.
You can find out about bills, find legislator
contact info, etc.
Web site address
http://mlis.state.md.us
To find a certain bill if
you know the
number
To find bills
dealing with
certain subjects
Can search for bills using
any of these categories, but
by subject may be easiest
We used a past legislative session
because between sessions there are
no bills to research
For bills of various subject
matters
We chose to look at bills about
bees. If you have certain areas
of interest or expertise research
bills in those areas.
To get the most
information about a bill
choose the Long Format
HB327 and SB293 are likely
virtually the same bill
introduced in both houses to
speed the process
Clicking on the bill number will give
you the text of the bill
For bills in the current session
there will be a hearing schedule
and which committee will hear it—
this bill received an unfavorable
report in committee, it did not go
any farther and died here
Scrolling down on this screen will bring
you to what you see on pg 10 of this
presentation— a link to the fiscal note
Opens the pages of
the document for
viewing
Click to view this
page
The sponsors of the bill,
and a synopsis is on the
first page—the synopsis
is often confusing to
read, but read on to the
body of the bill and it
will make more sense
This bill deals with
existing law, but is an
attempt to slightly alter
that law. The changes to
the existing law are in
bold.
This is the lower portion of the screen
from pg 7 of this presentation—scroll up
here to see bill number, etc.
Each bill will have a fiscal
note detailing what it will
cost the government if it is
enacted.
The “Senators” and
“Delegates” links are the
best, most direct links to
contact info for these
members
Clinking on the Senate or House links here
will give you their budget links and links to
their member contact information—pages
that look very similar to this page
All four of these links will get
you to the hearing schedule,
organized by different means.
This screen allows you to see all
hearings for the entire session—just
keep scrolling down the page to the
date, with the committee hearing
you are interested in.
Through Legislative Services you
can ask questions, get copies of
bills, and get copies of the
Maryland Constitution for “free”
(taxpayer dollars pay for it)