Series 4076

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR [603]

LEGISLATIVE BILLS, 1896-[ongoing]

DESCRIPTION: This series documents the concluding stages of the legislative process. The series contains the final copies of legislative bills, memorials, and resolutions. This includes bills which have been signed by the Governor. Bills vetoed by the Governor after the legislature was out of a normal session are also in this series (even if a special override session was held). If vetoed and overridden by the legislature, the bill will also be found in this series, although without the Governor's signature. The same is true of bills allowed to pass without either the Governor's signature or a statement of his veto. Bills which failed to pass out of the Legislature, either initially or by failure to override a veto issued while the Legislature was still in normal session, will not be found in this series.

Bill, in the broad sense, refers to bills, resolutions, memorials, etc. In the narrow sense, bills consist of those documents which legislators desire to have made into a Utah law. After passing both houses of the Legislature, a final copy, incorporating all amendments and noting final vote count was drawn up and sent to the Governor. The copy was endorsed by the secretary and clerk and signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. The ultimate procedures of proofreading and signing the bill in the legislature are known by the terms "enrolling" or "engrossing;" precise usage of those terms changed over time. Initially the bills were handwritten. By 1911 they were typed and backed with yellow paper for Senate bills and blue paper for House bills. By the 1950s, the bills, as well as the backing, were yellow or blue.

Following passage by both houses, the bill could be signed by the Governor. The Lieutenant Governor (formerly Secretary of State) witnessed the Governor's signature and filed the bill. A bill can also become law by failure to either sign or veto the bill within a specified number of days. A bill could be vetoed by the Governor by attaching a letter outlining his objections and returning the bill to the legislature if still in session, or passing it directly to the Lieutenant Governor if the legislature had adjourned.

The bills often are accompanied by letters of transmittal, sometimes filed with the bills to which they pertain, and sometimes filed separately. Bill corrections, for clerical errors noted after the bills were signed by the Governor, were sent to the Lieutenant Governor to be filed with the bill. Rather than being inserted, these were sometimes maintained as a separate file.

Memorials are generally pleadings, usually to the U.S. Congress, for a particular action. Occasionally they are expressions of condolence. They are acted upon by both the House and Senate in the same manor as a bill. Types include House concurrent memorials, House joint memorials, House memorials, Senate concurrent memorials, and Senate joint memorials. The inclusion of the word House or Senate indicates the chamber in which the memorial originated. Beyond that, types of memorials are differentiated by the way in which they are passed. Memorials fell into disuse and the term is dropped entirely in the legislative rules in 1979, their function assumed by resolutions.

Initially, concurrent memorials were passed by one chamber with the other chamber concurring; the Governor might or might not sign. They were signed by the clerk or secretary of the chambers, the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, and the Secretary of State as witness and filer. The definitions of concurrent memorials and joint memorials switched in 1921: Concurrent memorials came to mean memorials passed by both houses with the Governor concurring and signing the memorial as well.

Joint memorials began as those passed by both houses and usually the Governor. They were signed by the clerk or secretary of the houses, the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, the Governor, and the Secretary of State as witness and filer. The definitions of concurrent memorials and joint memorials were formalized, and basically switched in 1921: Joint memorials came to mean memorials passed by both houses, but with which the Governor need not concur.

Memorials occur less frequently. They must pass only the originating chamber.

Resolutions are position statements which do not have the weight of law. They are acted upon by both the House and Senate in the same manor as a bill. Initially many empowered a state agency to take a particular action. Congratulatory statements and expressions of condolence might also be passed as resolutions. Types include House concurrent resolutions, Senate concurrent resolutions, House enabling resolutions, Senate enabling resolutions, House joint resolutions, Senate joint resolutions, House resolutions, and Senate resolutions. Like memorials, the resolutions are differentiated by the chamber of origin and by the way in which they are passed. In 1919 a joint resolution was defined as all those dealing with the federal government while a concurrent resolution was any other type. However, like the memorials, the definition changed in 1921 to "concurrent" meaning something requiring gubernatorial approval with "joint" meaning a resolution just requiring passage by both chambers of the legislature but without gubernatorial concurrence.

Enabling resolutions permit the introduction of a non-budget related bill during a budget session. An enabling resolution was acted upon as a joint resolution.

Simple resolutions are adopted only by the originating body, and do not have to pass the opposing legislative chamber or Governor. They are used to initiate a particular action in that body (e.g. change rules, form a committee, request a report from an agency, etc.). A resolution also permits a chamber to make a position statement of its own accord; get well wishes and congratulatory statements are often included here.

ARRANGEMENT: Chronological by legislative session. Thereunder alphabetical by document type (e.g., Action index, House bill, Senate resolution) then numeric by bill number if applicable.

RELATED RECORDS: LAWS OF UTAH, series 83155 and UTAH CODE ANNOTATED, series 83238 are the published versions of the laws passed. Series 428 are the WORKING BILLS of the Senate and series 432 are the WORKING BILLS of the House, showing the progress of the bills through those bodies. Various Governors records also include bill drafts and correspondence pertaining to them. The Archives's series 7375 of LEGISLATIVE BILL COPIES contains unofficial copies of the final versions of some bills, but does not include the critical veto messages, signatures, or vote counts.

FINDING AIDS: Various listings of bills were created by the Lieutenant Governor. By 1933 action indices appear regularly. These note the bill name and number and dates passed or vetoed.

PROCESSING NOTE: The series was extensively rearranged for reference convenience. Initial arrangement was by order received, or frequently in the order of the chapters these bills became in the Laws of Utah. Failed bills were often separated from passed bills. The series was scheduled in 1991 to be held in the office for four years or until the end of a governor's term and then transferred to the Archives. Arrangement and processing completed in 1993 by A.C. Cone. Microfilming for reference convenience was begun in 1993.

GAPS IN THE SERIES: As only final bills are included in this series, the numbering is disjunctive, and missing bills are difficult to distinguish from those which simply did not pass and too numerous to itemize. At times, only a letter of transmittal is present. On the filming of Box 53, the contents of folders 19 and 20 have been reversed so SB 108 appears before SB 105 and 107.

CONTAINER LIST

See PDF file for full container list.