STATE OF MAINE
_____
In Senate__________
ORDERED, the House concurring, that the Joint Rules be amended by amending Joint
Rule 208 to read:
Rule 208. Requirements for Drafting.
A request for a bill or resolve filed with the Revisor of Statutes is considered complete
when the request is properly titled and accompanied by sufficient instructions, information and
data required for its preparation. When a request is not accompanied by sufficient instructions,
information or data, the Revisor of Statutes is directed to give written notice of inadequate
information to the legislator. Upon receipt of said written notice, the legislator has 5 business
days, unless an alternative period is set jointly by the presiding officers, to file adequate
information with the Revisor of Statutes, or the request for the bill or resolve will be denied.
Drafts prepared by an outside source must be filed in final form by the appropriate cloture date.
When directed by the sponsor, the Revisor of Statutes shall prepare a bill or resolve in
concept form. The bill or resolve shall contain only an enacting clause and a summary of the
proposed legislation and shall not be fully drafted by the Revisor of Statutes. The bill or resolve
prepared in this form shall be printed and referred to a committee in the same manner as other
legislation and may be reported in fully drafted form by that committee in the same manner as
other legislation. Except as otherwise provided in this Joint Rule, this method of drafting
legislation is not allowed for legislation submitted by the Governor, by agencies or departments
of state government, by study commissions, by joint standing committees or joint select
committees or pursuant to law or statute. Any request for a bill or resolve submitted after cloture
must state if it is a request for a concept draft. Any committee amendment must be germane to
the detailed summary of the concept draft.
The Revisor of Statutes shall prepare in concept form a bill submitted pursuant to the Maine
Revised Statutes, Title 5, section 1666 chapter 149 that proposes to make unified appropriations
and allocations for the expenditures of state government for the biennium or supplemental
appropriations and allocations, and shall include an Internet address at which may be found the
text of the draft unified budget bill or supplemental budget bill submitted to the Revisor of
Statutes by the Governor.
SPONSORED BY: ___________________________________
(Senator BENNETT, R.)
COUNTY: Oxford
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