CHEYENNE
— The Wyoming Legislature offers a variety of services to help
Wyoming residents actively participate in the legislative process
during the upcoming 2013 General Session, which begins Tuesday, Jan. 8. Below
is a list of those services:
General
telephone messages and correspondence for legislators
If
you would like to contact a legislator directly during the session,
call the Senate receptionist at 307-777-7711 or the House
receptionist at 307-777-7852 to leave a brief message for a member.
Written mail may be directed to a designated legislator in care of
the Wyoming House or Senate, State Capitol, Cheyenne, WY, 82002. Fax
messages may be sent to a designated legislator at 307-777-5466.
Contacting
legislators by email
You
also may contact members of the Wyoming Legislature via e-mail. Many
legislators use e-mail to correspond with their constituents and
other members of the public. This is one of the most effective ways
to communicate with legislators, especially if you would like to
provide more detailed information than is available through the
various telephone services. Legislators can be contacted by email
using firstname.lastname@wyoleg.gov.
Contact information is also listed on the Legislature’s website at
www.wyoleg.gov.
Online
hotline and telephone hotline
During
the legislative session, you can recommend support for or opposition
to, a particular piece of legislation by using the online hotline. In
addition to expressing support for, or opposition to, an identified
bill, you also can leave a short comment regarding the bill. This
service is available on the Legislature’s website at
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/postcomments/onlinehotline.aspx.
Comments will be available to all legislators, but keep in mind that
legislators consider a variety of factors when making decisions on
pending legislation. The telephone hotline is also available toll
free for those without Internet access. Within Wyoming, the number is
866-996-8683. Callers will not be able to leave comments regarding a
bill. Information you provide using these services is considered a
public record.
Bill
status hotline
You
can call the Bill Status Information Service toll-free within Wyoming
at 800-342-9570 to obtain the current status of any bill in the
legislative process. This is a limited service that provides
information about where the bill is in the process, but it does not
provide information about the details of the legislation. In
addition, callers cannot leave messages for legislators at this
telephone number. This service is available on days the Legislature
is in session from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Out-of-state callers should dial
307-777-6185 for this service.
Hearing
impaired service
If
you have a hearing impairment, call the toll-free Wyoming Relay
Service for information on any bill. The number is 800-877-9965 for
TDD or text telephones. Ask the Wyoming Relay Service operator to
dial 307-777-6185 to obtain the status on bills. This service is
available to all Wyoming residents with hearing impairments.
Information
on the Legislature’s website
A
great deal of legislative information is available electronically
through the Wyoming Legislature’s website, www.wyoleg.gov.
This site also can be accessed through the state of Wyoming’s
webpage. During legislative sessions, the website will be updated
daily with important legislative information, including the text of
all introduced, engrossed, and enrolled bills; information about
amendments; a record of all roll call votes posted as soon as
possible after each vote; record of actions taken on bills; bill
status; Senate and House daily calendars; and standing committee
meeting schedules.
Streaming
audio of legislative proceedings
Live
and archived audio proceedings of the Wyoming Senate and the Wyoming
House of Representatives are available on the Wyoming Legislature’s
website. A link will be prominently displayed on the website when the
session begins that provides the option of listening to live
proceedings, if the House and Senate are convened, and an archive of
daily legislative proceedings. If you are having trouble hearing
sound on your computer when the House or Senate are in session,
please click on the Audio Troubleshooting Guide for assistance. The
system will not stream live audio when the House and Senate are
adjourned, at recess, or at ease for more than 15 minutes.
Roll
call votes
Current
technology allows the Wyoming Legislature to post roll call votes
almost in real time for floor votes. You can find out how legislators
vote on every roll-call vote taken both on the floor during this
year’s session. This information is available within several
minutes after each roll-call vote on the floor. Users should click on
the “2013 Bill Tracking Information” link on the homepage and
then on the “Roll Call Votes on Bills and Amendments” link. On
the top of the page select Floor Votes or Committee Votes from the
drop-down menu. Then, select whether you would like the votes on
House Bills or Senate Files. A list of all bills will then display on
the page. Once you have selected the bill you want to review, the
actions that were taken, as well as the day the actions were taken
will display in the main section of the page. Click on the “view”
link to see how each individual legislator voted. This electronic
voting system has been recognized by the National Conference of State
Legislatures as one of the most robust systems in the country
providing almost real-time public access to voting information for
the residents of Wyoming.
Electronic
and paper copies of legislation (House Bills and Senate Files)
The
text of each bill will be posted on the Legislature’s website as
soon as the legislation is assigned a bill number. Fiscal notes are
also included on the website, which provide information about the
fiscal impact of the bill. The text of each bill that passes one
house (called “engrossed bills”) and bills that are passed by the
Legislature (called “enrolled acts”) are posted on the site as
they are approved. Bills can be viewed by subject or sponsor. If you
do not have Internet access to obtain copies of bills, you can call
the Legislative Service Office at 307-777-7881 to request paper
copies of legislation for a minimal fee. The Office is open from 7:30
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on days the Legislature is in session. If you need
a paper copy of a bill when you are in the Capitol, you can purchase
copies at the Legislative Service office in Room 213 of the Capitol
for 10 cents per page.
Amendments
to legislation
You
can obtain paper copies of House and Senate amendments under
consideration each day at the Legislative Service Office in Room 213
free of charge. Amendments under consideration each day are also
listed on the legislative website when they are released for
distribution. Amendments that have been adopted are compiled daily
and summaries are available in the Rotunda, the LSO main office, and
the House and Senate lobbies. Adopted House amendments are printed on
yellow paper and adopted Senate amendments are printed on green
paper.
Senate
and House schedules
Calendars
for floor proceedings in the Senate and House of Representatives will
be available on the Legislature’s website in the late afternoon for
the next day’s floor proceedings in each chamber. The calendars
include legislation under consideration and the general order of
business. Paper copies of the House and Senate calendars are
available daily in the Rotunda, the LSO main office in Room 213, and
the House and Senate lobbies. House information is printed on yellow
paper and Senate information is printed on green paper.
Standing
committee meetings
During the session, when a bill is
introduced in either the Senate or the House, it is sent to a
standing committee for review and to receive public comment. You are
welcome to attend standing committee meetings and to testify for or
against legislation. If you would like to provide written information
to the Committee, you will be requested to fill out a Committee
Handout Form at the meeting (copies of the form are also available on
the Legislature’s website). You are encouraged to e-mail an
electronic copy of your handout in advance to the LSO at:
legdocs@wyoleg.gov,
so staff can maintain an electronic archive of committee handouts. A
schedule of standing committee meetings and the bills that will be
considered by each committee for the next legislative working day
will be posted on the Legislature’s website each day in the late
afternoon. Meeting notices are also posted outside the House and
Senate lobbies and on committee doors. Paper copies of the House and
Senate standing committee meeting schedules are available daily free
of charge in the Rotunda, the LSO main office in Room 213, and the
House and Senate lobbies. House committee schedules are printed on
yellow paper and Senate committee schedules are printed on green
paper.
Bill
status information
In
addition to the Bill Status Hotline telephone service described
above, the Legislature’s website provides information regarding the
current status of each bill under consideration, as well as previous
actions on the bill (journal digest). The journal digest includes the
dates actions were taken on the bill, all roll call votes related to
the bill, and the text of all amendments offered regarding the bill.
Paper copies of bill status information are available in the Rotunda,
the LSO main office in Room 213, and the House and Senate lobbies.
This information is printed on purple paper.
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