Law JournalsВ Law review articles often present analysis and discuss the intent of specific laws.

House and Senate DocumentsВ (Reports to the General Assembly) TheseВ include reports and recommendations by various agencies, committees, and commissions on topics of pending legislation.

Fiscal Impact StatementsВ These documents are usually prepared by the Department of Planning and Budget and contain anticipated costs of proposed legislation.

On a given topic, the published opinions of the attorney general may be helpful to determine intent.

Attorney General OpinionsВ Persons authorized by statute, such as the governor, a General Assembly member, the head of a state agency, or a constitutional officer can ask the attorney general for an official opinion on questions of law.

Older House floor sessions (1981вЂ“2014) are available on videotape.

Legislative SessionsВ There are no printed transcripts of General Assembly debates, but video ofВ House and Senate floor sessions and committee meetingsВ (2017вЂ“ ) can be viewedВ online.

House and Senate JournalsВ The journals are a daily record of the legislative session andВ provideВ the status of bills and related information such as theВ names of patrons, reading dates, vote counts, amendments, and committee referrals.

The file contains the bill request, background information justifying the proposal of the bill, copies with the drafting changes, and any correspondence between the drafting attorney and the legislator.

Legislative Draft FilesВ The Division of Legislative Services creates a legislative draft file for each bill.

The regular print of the text indicates existing legislation, text in italics indicates amendments to the current law, and text with a line through it indicates deletions.

A bill always mentions the section of the Code of VirginiaВ that it will amend. The various versions of a bill delineate the changes in its text over time and may be helpful in determining intent.

BillsВ A bill can originate inВ either the House or Senate and containsВ the proposed text of a law.Information Sources Explained Proposed Legislation This guide provides resources that can be used to track pending legislation, discover the intent behind a bill, and trace the history of changes to a law. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division,Washington, D.C.ДЄ legislative history is the sequence of steps or path taken to arrive at the final version of a law the term is also used to refer to the documents reflecting that history.В Legislative histories are often compiled in order to understand what the legislature intended in authoring aВ bill, or the purpose and meaning of specific legislative language.

The code of va 29.1-516