| REVIEWS
Cruising
Cyberspace
Web
Site Pick Of The Month
By Pam Wegmann
It's that time of
the year again. The Louisiana legislature is in session. As a former
lobbyist, I used to hear the legislators mildly joke that the citizens
of the state were not safe until the legislature was adjourned sine die.
Yet they were not too far from the truth. The actions taken by this elected
body affect us all, both as individuals and as business people. To follow
the legislature's every move you can tune in to the Legislative Web site
of the state of Louisiana at:
http://www.legis.state.la.us
From this site, you
can not only learn about the overall process, but you can track a specific
bill, check committee meeting schedules, and locate what's on the daily
calendar of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Senate. The home
page is as a home page should be: a simple table of contents.
At the About The
Legislature page, one can get an overview of the process, look up the meaning
of those unique legislative terms that keep most of us guessing and find
out how to contact legislative agencies that you can call for detailed
explanations and in-depth information on specific bills.
Clicking on the Session
Information button will give you the day's House Committees and Senate
Committees meeting schedules. If you want to see which specific bills are
under consideration on a given day, click on the House Order of the Day
or the Senate Daily Digest for a list of what's up for consideration and
a vote.
The 1999 Regular
Session Bill Information link allows you to search for and pull up the
text of a bill or resolution by its number, by author, or by a summary.
One of the most useful links from here is to Current Status, which will
tell you if a bill has made it out of committee, if it is on the calendar,
or if it has been passed or killed.
Both the Senate and
the House have their own sub-pages on this site. The House posts their
day's schedule, convening times, and has an Index where you can find a
Representative and his or her e-mail address by district, name or parish.
The House also has live video streaming whereby you can tune in via the
Internet and watch them in session once they have convened on the floor
of the House Chamber. The House side of the site also has a link to an
interactive Kid's page which is worth visiting if you have school age children.
The Senate
link also has logistical information for its Chamber's members and a link
to the PULS line, a telephone number you can call for updates on legislative
activity. There is also a Fiscal Outlook Briefing, which provides background
info on the state's current budget and spending plans. The Briefing takes
the form of an online PowerPoint presentation which you can click
through a slide at a time.
It's incumbent on
all of us to be informed citizens and to work to influence the legislative
process. Technology, via the Internet, makes it easier than ever to stay
informed and to make a political difference. This site makes good use of
that technology.
May, 1999
Knowledge is Power!
Happy cruising! :-)
Questions/Comments
can be sent to pam@info-matters.com
or faxed to 504.738.0016. You can also reach Ms. Wegmann at 504.738.0070.
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