Virginia Legislative Process

This project involves locating and summarizing the review of a recent legislative session in a particular state. You will record your work in a short research paper, a minimum of five pages double-spaced, using Chicago/Turabian style. I. Locate the summary of the legislative session for your state that has been prepared by the state government, not some outside source. The 2020 summary may not be complete, so you may need to look for a 2019 summary. This may or may not be available online. It is usually prepared by the Legislative Council, the Clerk of the House, or the Secretary of the Senate. An email or phone call to any of these may help you locate the summary. You can usually find this at the legislature’s webpage. It may be titled session summary, digest of legislation, bills finally passed, acts passed, issues, or highlights, etc. They may be listed under “reports” of the House or Senate. Sometimes a google search for these terms with your state is the best way to find the summary. Every state prepares these summaries following the legislative session; some of the summaries are useful, and some are not. Since you can search for all legislation at the legislature’s website, many states are not doing a very good job on the summaries anymore. II. Detail in your paper (a) the process of your research in finding this material; (b) the general layout of the legislative summary, including the topics considered; and (c) a more thorough discussion of several (perhaps three) of the more interesting areas of legislation. Discuss whether you think this particular legislation is a necessary exercise of state government. III. Carefully proof for sense, spelling, grammar, and style. IV. Hand in as hard copy with title page, footnotes, and works cited. Sources: Your resources for this paper will be the legislative summary prepared by state officials; you may also be able to find the local capital-city paper’s review of the legislative session.