On behalf of the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review, Legislation and Committee Support also reviews and analyzes regulations proposed by executive branch agencies. This review helps ensure agency compliance with statutory authority, legislative intent, and public notice requirements. Legislation and Committee Support is responsible for Amendments and Legal Analysis, and Code Revision and Drafting. Each year, more than 3,500 bills and joint resolutions and over 2,000 amendments are drafted by Office staff. After bills are introduced by members of the General Assembly, the unit prepares, reviews, coordinates, and processes amendments to bills.
Amendments are formal changes that can alter significantly the content of a bill.
That division, also known as the Code Revision Division, was incorporated into the Legislative Division in 1990 and became a part of the Office of Policy Analysis in 1997 as Legal Support and Statutory Revision. It was renamed Bill Drafting and Code Revision in 1999. The first reorganization and recodification of the Annotated Code since 1888 was begun in 1970 by the Commission to Revise the Annotated Code of Maryland. The Commission was charged to study and revise the Annotated Code in order to improve the organization, accessibility, utility, and clarity of law and to eliminate unconstitutional, obsolete, inconsistent or conflicting statutes. Until 1985, the Division of Statutory Revision worked under Commission supervision.