The Clerk of the House serves as a constitutional officer performing the ministerial duties as directed by the Speaker to include keeping and publishing a correct Journal of House proceedings; superintending the engrossing and transmitting of legislation; attesting to all writs issued by order of the House and the passage of all legislative measures; the publishing of other House documents; and, supervising the custody of legislation, and official records, and documents of the House. Additionally, upon request, this position provides parliamentary guidance. The Office of the Clerk is a non-partisan, non-political office.
The Deputy Clerk of the House oversees each separate unit of the Clerk’s Office, is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the office and during session manages the Clerk’s desk and the Member’s service desk in the House chamber. In addition, the Deputy Clerk assists the Clerk of the House in his duties and responsibilities throughout the year.
Units within the Office of the Clerk include the following: Administrative, Calendar, Documents Distribution and Stationery, Engrossing and Enrolling, Journal, Messages, Photography, Print Services, Records Management and Verifiers.
The staff in this unit of the Clerk’s Office provides administrative support to all units within the Clerk’s Office. In addition, they respond to general inquiries as well as requests for publications such as the Staff Directory, the Member Directory, The Rules, People of Lawmaking, The Clerk’s Manual, Guide to Florida Government, and more.
The staff assists the general public in locating their state representatives, senators, and congressmen; provides statistical information; assists in bill tracking; and directs research questions to the appropriate individual or office.
This unit plays an important role in committee and Chamber activities. Calendar staff tracks a bill all the way through the committee process and monitors its availability for placement on the Calendar of the House.
During the legislative interim, an Interim Calendar, listing bills to be considered and other pertinent legislative information, is prepared in advance of each round of committee meetings.
During session, there is a Daily Calendar which sets out the agenda for each day that is printed in-house over-night in Print Services. The Calendar includes the assorted bill progress calendars which help determine where a particular bill is in the House’s legislative process. It also includes information regarding committee meetings scheduled for that day and the following weekdays. Daily Calendars are available on the House legislative website as well as in printed form.
The Calendar staff maintains the database for the members’ web pages, maintains and publishes committee members, and House staff information in various forms. They are also responsible for compiling and publishing the Clerk’s Manual. In addition the Calendar staff updates bill jackets, publishes the member’s seating chart, member’s composite, and the Freshmen House Member photo booklet and other special projects assigned by the Clerk or the Deputy Clerk.
House bill subscriptions (for members and general public), daily Journals, daily Calendars, and other publications are distributed from the Documents, Distribution and Stationery office. This is also the distribution center for the Clerk’s Manual, Guide to Florida Government, multiple copies of the directory, and many other House publications. There is a CD duplicating machine available in this office for staff use
During regular sessions, special sessions
and the interim committee weeks, Calendars, Journals, and bills are delivered to members’ offices and committees upon request each day. Engrossed and enrolled bills are provided by this office upon request. Bills and many other printed documents are also available on the House legislative website.
The Stationery staff processes the staff and member business cards, note cards, and envelope orders that are then sent to the Clerk’s Office Print Shop for printing. Forms are available in Leagis and submitted to this office electronically.
Engrossing and Enrolling staff incorporate amendments adopted by House or Senate floor action into House bills. In many instances, a bill is amended at several stages of floor consideration. Each time amendments are adopted, a new version of the bill, which reflects those changes, is prepared. This is done overnight so the correct version of the bill is before the House the next session day. The Engrossing area is a secured area during session with access limited to authorized staff only.
Once bills have passed both the House and Senate, they are enrolled, signed by the Speaker, Clerk, President, and Secretary, and presented to the Governor for his action.
The Engrossing and Enrolling staff compile and publish the Guide to Florida Government, The People of Lawmaking in Florida, the Welcome to the Florida House of Representatives Handbook, and other projects and publications assigned the Clerk or Deputy Clerk.
The Journal is required by the Florida Constitution and House Rules and is the legal record of the proceedings of the House. The
Journals, numbered serially from the first day of each session, record the formal actions of the House and are not a verbatim record. The full text of bill titles and House resolutions, as well as each roll call vote, is printed in the
Journal upon final passage.
The Journals are produced overnight and are immediately published on the House legislative website. Printed copies, produced by Print Services, are available to members and the public the following morning.
The daily Journals, after complete verification, are edited and reprinted after
sine die adjournment of the Legislature, along with various indices (including sponsors, bills by subject and number, vetoed bills, and votes by sequence number) prepared by Journal staff to provide aid for future research. This bound volume becomes the official record of the proceedings of the House and is published on the House legislative website, replacing the original daily
Journals. The Journal area is responsible for maintaining and archiving audio files of House sessions, publishing the
Tallahassee Staff Directory and the Member Directory. In addition, Journal staff conducts historical research as requested.
When the Legislature is in session, the Messages unit is responsible for processing legislation traveling between the two houses.
The Messages staff ensures that bills received from the Senate and traveling to the Speaker’s Office of the House arrive in proper form and are accompanied by a message which accurately reflects the Senate’s action on a bill. Additionally, this office is responsible for sending messages to the Senate indicating the House’s action on a bill and action requested of the Senate.
Messages received from the Senate go to the House floor attached to a bill. Message language, speed, and accurate record-keeping may mean the life or death of a bill. Messages staff keeps a record of all messages sent and received. This is another area of the Clerk’s Office with very limited access.
The Photography unit provides session photography, individual shots of members, committee meetings, and other significant legislative events as requested. The Photography unit also makes photographs available for the
Photo Album on the House legislative website. In addition, they historically archive photo-quality digital images for future requests.
The House Print Services unit consists of Duplicating services and the House Print Shop.
This unit prints bills, session summaries, directories, special projects and printing jobs, the
interim Calendars, daily Calendars, Guide to Florida Government, The Rules book, daily Journals, business cards, note cards, envelopes and most other printed materials of the House of Representatives.
“Request for Duplication” forms must be filled out when requesting copies. The number of copies needed and specific instructions must be provided on the form. Guidelines will not allow the copying of personal materials, and duplication of copyrighted materials is prohibited with certain exceptions.
During session, you may obtain copies of floor amendments, roll calls, meeting packets, individual House bills, and other related materials from Print Services.
All House bills are numbered and electronically submitted by House Bill Drafting to a printer in the Records Management unit to begin their journey through the system.
Council and committee attendance roll calls, vote sheets, and reports on bills voted on by council or committee are electronically retrieved by this unit.
During the interim, staff members process requests for bills to be withdrawn prior to introduction by a letter of authorization from the sponsor to the Clerk. Once session has begun, a member who wishes to withdraw a bill from further consideration must coordinate this through the Rules & Calendar Council and are withdrawn by motion on the floor.
Another area of responsibility of the staff in this unit is to track actions taken on the bills from the point of referral by the Speaker through council or committee and to the Chamber for final House consideration. The staff accounts for all amendments that are filed to bills and those amendments are filed in the bill jackets in the prescribed order of consideration on the House floor. After session each year, this unit is responsible for an accounting of all bills that died either in the council or committee, in messages, or on the Calendar of the House or Senate. The bills are held for a period of time and then archived with the Department of State. Records Management staff maintains the Outlook directory and conducts research for statistical purposes and assist with the publishing of The Rules.
The Verification unit proofreads all printed materials produced by the Office of the Clerk in order to ensure the accuracy of such documents. These materials include, but are not limited to, the following: engrossed and enrolled bills, committee assignments, daily and bound Journals, directories of House members and staff, the
Clerk’s Manual, and the Guide to Florida Government and all other publications or documents assigned by the Clerk or Deputy Clerk.
