Legislative Council is the principal research and legal arm of the General Assembly. Established under R.I.G.L. § 22-8-1, the Council’s staff of attorneys, researchers, secretaries and clerical aides provide legislators with information on matters pending or to come before the legislature. Legislative Council’s principal activity is the drafting of legislation for individual members.

Staffed by a number of attorneys, the council will take bill-drafting requests and prepare the legislation. Staff members also handle the typing, proofing and duplicating of the bill and its delivery to legislators in the House and Senate chambers.

Another unit of Legislative Council is the Legislative Proofing Office. It is responsible for reading and proofing of all bills prepared by Legislative Council before they are duplicated and delivered to individual legislators. The office staff reads material to ensure that the finished product is accurate as to the intent of the legislator, as well as typographically and grammatically correct.