Look for "legislative intent" letters in the Assembly Journal
In recent decades, occasional letters from legislators have appeared in the Assembly Journal expressing the intent of language in a bill or the scope or purpose of a bill. These are not listed in the bill history but might be inserted in the Journal on dates an action was taken, so check the Journal pages for each date any action was taken as listed in the bill history.
You may also find such letters or statements of legislative intent via the Alphabetical Index to the Assembly Journal for the year of the bill (and for several years after, since occasionally a letter appears after a law has gone into effect):
- under "JOURNAL, PRINT IN--Legislative Intent, Letters of--[followed by bill numbers]"
- under "PRINT IN JOURNAL--[followed by the author of the bill and the bill number]"
- also try the name of the bill author(s), the governor's name or "LEGISLATIVE INTENT"
- also check the Bill Action Index (if there is one) after the Alphabetical Index
- An index entry like "Legislative Intent, statement printed, 6985" means a legislative intent letter will be found starting on page 6985 of the Assembly Journal for that year.
Where to find Assembly Journal and its indexes
- print: Journals (Indexes appear in last volume for each year) in Stacks, KFC5
- online: Journals (1995-present) at Clerk of the Assembly's webpage, Historical Information (click on "Journals" tab at right side, enter date(s) of action from Bill History)
- online: Journals (1850-2011) Clerk of the Assembly's webpage archived Journals
- online: Indexes to Journals (1881-2015) Clerk of the Assembly's webpage archived Histories and Indexes
