Legislative website carries searchable wealth of information

The Oregon State Legislature website contains multiple options for finding pertinent information on bills, an indispensable resource for researching and tracking legislation of interest.

For broad searches use the “Find Bills” button or the “Search Bills” field located in the right-hand column of the Oregon State Legislature home page.

The “Find Bills” and “Search Bills” options are perfect for keyword searches and yield results for the current session. Boolean operators can be used to refine your search.

For more detailed searches use the Oregon State Legislature Information System (OLIS). 

• To search by hearing date, the OLIS home page provides a list of the meetings being held that day under the “Meetings Today” accordion and identifies the times, locations and agendas for each meeting. This list can be modified to provide hearings scheduled for other days by using the “Pick a new date” option in the top right corner or by selecting a different session using the “Session” icon located at the top of the page. This page also includes lists of bills scheduled for first, second and third readings; committee referrals and reports; and the day’s legislative publications.
• To search by bill number, key word search or bill sponsor, use the “Bills” icon at the page’s top. This search is a more advanced version of the “Find Bills” and “Search Bills” options listed above and will yield more specific results.
• To search by committee, use the “Committees” icon at the page’s top. This search will yield the best results when generally looking for education bills. The Senate and House have education committees. Once a committee has been selected, the “Overview” tab will list what is happening on the current day and the “Assigned Measures” tab will list all the bills that have been assigned to that committee. 

Once a bill has been located, use the bill’s “Overview” tab to find summary information, measure history and an upcoming events schedule. The measure history section of this tab will identify where the bill is in the legislative process, provide the results of any vote that has occurred and support access to the hearing videos. To access these recordings open the “Measure History” accordion, click on the “Committee Agenda" icon to the right of the listed hearing, click on the “Recorded Content” icon to the right of the bill number listed in the “Meetings” column located in the right navigation pane, then click on the “Play” icon in the left navigation pane.

The “Meeting Materials/Exhibits” tab houses all written documentation associated with the bill that has been submitted as public record. You will find submissions that have been provided by the public and all written testimony, floor letters, impact statements, staff measure summaries and various reports.

All other tabs contain the Legislature's work product. The “Text” tab yields the introduced, amended, engrossed and enrolled bill versions. The last in the list will be the most recent. The “Analysis” tab offers nonpartisan staff reports, including staff measure summaries and impact statements. The “Amendments” tab contains all submitted bill amendments. Not all amendments that have been drafted will be submitted for consideration.

Useful icon identification:

Expanded summary

Committee agenda

Recorded content (video)

OLIS can be a powerful tool for legislative information, and the more familiar you are with it, the more useful it is.

- Oregon School Boards Association