2 U.S.C. § 281b — Functions

submitted 56 years ago by Pub. L. 91-510 to r/title-2-THE-CONGRESS · 304 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

The Office of Legislative Counsel drafts and advises on legislation for House committees and Members. It helps during conference committees and can send staff to the House floor. The Speaker can also direct it to provide other legal services.

The Office of the Legislative Counsel's functions are: (1) When the House's conference managers request it, advise and help them during a conference on disagreements between the House and Senate, and help the conference committee write the conference report and any explanatory statement. (2) When any House committee, or a joint committee that can report legislation to the House, requests it, advise and help the committee consider legislation, and help draft the legislation, amendments, and reports. (3) When a Member in charge of floor time on a bill requests it, send up to two staff members from the Office (and, at the Legislative Counsel's discretion, the Legislative Counsel too) to the House floor, to advise and help that Member and, when possible, other Members. (4) When any Member requests it, draft legislation and give drafting advice on bills prepared by others — subject to reasonable limits the Legislative Counsel can set, with the Speaker's approval, on how much of the Office's resources go to any one Member. (5) At the Speaker's direction, provide legal services on the House's behalf that the Office is capable of and that don't conflict with section 281a or the rest of this section.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

The functions of the Office shall be as follows:

(1)

Upon request of the managers on the part of the House at any conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, to advise and assist the managers on the part of the House in the course of the conference, and to assist the committee of conference in the preparation of the conference report and any accompanying explanatory statement.

(2)

Upon request of any committee of the House, or any joint committee having authority to report legislation to the House, to advise and assist the committee in the consideration of any legislation before it, and to assist the committee in the preparation of drafts of any such legislation, amendments thereto, and reports thereon.

(3)

Upon request of any Member having control of time during the consideration of any legislation by the House, to have in attendance on the floor of the House not more than two members of the staff of the Office (and, in his discretion, the Legislative Counsel) to advise and assist such Member and, to the extent feasible, any other Member, in the course of such consideration.

(4)

Upon request of any Member, subject to such reasonable restrictions as the Legislative Counsel may impose with the approval of the Speaker on the proportion of the resources of the Office which may be devoted to the requests of any one Member, to prepare drafts of legislation and to furnish drafting advice with respect to drafts of legislation prepared by others.

(5)

At the direction of the Speaker, to perform on behalf of the House of Representatives any legal services which are within the capabilities of the Office and the performance of which would not be inconsistent with the provisions of section 281a of this title or the preceding provisions of this section.

Source credit: (Pub. L. 91–510, title V, § 503, Oct. 26, 1970, 84 Stat. 1202.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1970Enacted · Pub. L. 91-510 · 84 Stat. 1202

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 91-510 on 1970-10-26.

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