California puts statutes, legislative information on the Internet

CALIFORNIA — All California state statutes, the constitution and current legislative information is now available in electronic form through the Internet, a network of computer networks.

Assembly Bill 1624, signed into law by the governor in October and effective Jan. 1, mandated that all such information be made available to the public. The state is prohibited from charging anything for access to or re-use of this electronic information.

The Legislative Data Center was on-line and operational Jan. 21. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, California is the first state to offer such unlimited, comprehensive access to legislative, statutory and constitutional information via the Internet at no cost for public users.

Users of the Internet can gain access to the California information by typing connecting to the appropriate address (leginfo.public.ca.gov) and reading the files on their computer screen. The system allows the user to copy files from the public access computer to the user’s personal computer for later reference.

Anyone with electronic mail access to the Internet, such as CompuServe and Prodigy users, can gain access to these files through the electronic mail service.

For each current legislative session, the following information will be available: the legislative calendar; a list of pending matters; a list of committees and their members; the text, history and status of each bill; bill analyses; vote information; veto messages; the California Codes; the California Constitution; and all statutes enacted on or after Jan. 1, 1993. The bill indexes for House and Senate bills are listed by author, topic and bill number.

General information about the legislative process and a glossary of legislative terms are also available.

(California Assembly Bill 1624, Chapter 1235)