How To Use the Maryland General Assembly

Web SiteHow to Find Bills

How to Find Fiscal NotesHow to Find Legislator Contact

Where to Ask Questions and Order Constitutions

Presentation by Cindy SharrettsSlide Show by Kathy Fuller, for the Carroll County Republican Women’s Club

How to use this power point

Bring up the Maryland General Assembly web site at http://mlis.state.md.us.

Then page through the power point while clicking on the web site where shown.

You can find out about bills, find legislator contact info, etc.

To find bills dealing with certain subjects

Web site address http://mlis.state.md.us

To find a certain bill if you know the number

Can search for bills using any of these categories, but by subject may be easiest

For bills of various subject matters

We used a past legislative session because between sessions there are no bills to research

We chose to look at bills about bees. If you have certain areas of interest or expertise research bills in those areas.

To get the most information about a bill choose the Long Format

HB327 and SB293 are likely virtually the same bill introduced in both houses to speed the process

Scrolling down on this screen will bring you to what you see on pg 10 of this presentation— a link to the fiscal note

Clicking on the bill number will give you the text of the bill

For bills in the current session there will be a hearing schedule and which committee will hear it—this bill received an unfavorable report in committee, it did not go any farther and died here

Opens the pages of the document for viewing

Click to view this page

The sponsors of the bill, and a synopsis is on the first page—the synopsis is often confusing to read, but read on to the body of the bill and it will make more sense

This bill deals with existing law, but is an attempt to slightly alter that law. The changes to the existing law are in bold.

This is the lower portion of the screen from pg 7 of this presentation—scroll up here to see bill number, etc.

Each bill will have a fiscal note detailing what it will cost the government if it is enacted.

The “Senators” and “Delegates” links are the best, most direct links to contact info for these members

Clinking on the Senate or House links here will give you their budget links and links to their member contact information—pages that look very similar to this page

All four of these links will get you to the hearing schedule, organized by different means.

This screen allows you to see all hearings for the entire session—just keep scrolling down the page to the date, with the committee hearing you are interested in.

Through Legislative Services you can ask questions, get copies of bills, and get copies of the Maryland Constitution for “free” (taxpayer dollars pay for it)