Section 28-1-17. Prefiling of proposed bills and resolutions prior to each legislative session; administrative procedure

   (a) The purpose of this Code section is to establish an administrative procedure for the prefiling of proposed bills and resolutions prior to the convening of each legislative session. The purposes of such procedure shall include:

   (1) Allowing, but not requiring, the author of a measure which he or she intends to introduce in the General Assembly to make the members of the General Assembly and the general public aware of the existence and contents of such proposed measure;

   (2) Allowing, but not requiring, the presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives to indicate the committees to which they intend to assign such proposed measures if and when they are officially introduced; and

   (3) Allowing, but not requiring, standing committees so selected to begin informal consideration of such proposed measures.

(b) During the period which begins on November 15 of each calendar year and ends on the Friday before the second Monday in January of the following calendar year, bills and resolutions considered for introduction in the General Assembly may be prefiled with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House as authorized in this Code section. Such measures may be so prefiled with the Secretary of the Senate by any one or more Senators who will be eligible to consider the measure when introduced. Such measures may be so prefiled with the Clerk of the House by any one or more Representatives who will be eligible to consider the measure when introduced. The prefiling of a measure shall not constitute the official introduction of a bill or resolution, and a bill or resolution may be officially introduced only during a legislative session.

(c) When any one or more authors of a proposed measure desire to prefile the proposed measure, they shall obtain copies of the same from the Office of Legislative Counsel, prepared in a form to indicate their status as measures to be prefiled, and shall prefile the same with the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the House in such manner as may be prescribed by the Secretary or the Clerk.

(d) Neither the prefiling of a proposed measure by the author, an indication of intention to assign a proposed measure to a committee by a presiding officer, nor the informal consideration of a proposed measure by a committee shall be binding or have official status as the introduction, assignment to committee, or committee consideration of a measure; and all of such actions may officially be taken only after the convening of a session of the General Assembly.

(e) Upon receipt of a prefiled bill or resolution, the Secretary or Clerk shall assign to the proposed measure an identifying number. The Secretary and Clerk may develop numbering systems which will allow prefiled measures to be identified by a number corresponding to the bill or resolution number which will be assigned to the same measure when and if it is officially introduced during the legislative session.

(f) Following receipt of a prefiled measure, the Secretary or Clerk shall notify the presiding officer of the Senate or House, and such presiding officer may make a preliminary assignment of the measure to a standing committee for consideration by the committee. Such a preliminary assignment shall not constitute the official assignment of an officially introduced bill. Such official assignment of a bill or resolution may take place only following the official introduction of the bill or resolution during the legislative session. Such a preliminary assignment shall in no manner be binding upon the presiding officer, and the official assignment of a bill or resolution after its official introduction may be made without regard to any preliminary assignment of the proposed measure.

(g) Upon the preliminary assignment of a bill or resolution, the committee to which the same is assigned may commence consideration of the proposed measure and the issues addressed therein, but the committee shall have no power to take any official action with respect to such a proposed measure until after its official introduction and assignment to the committee.

(h) All measures prefiled under this Code section and the preliminary assignment of the same shall be matters of public record and shall be made available to the public.

Code 1981, § 28-1-17, enacted by Ga. L. 1994, p. 1146, § 1.