LSO reports dip in committee bills, 509 bill-drafting requests last year

Director Obrecht of the Legislative Service Office presented annual interim committee bill and staffing statistics to the Management Council.

Obrecht said the legislature had 114 committee bills numbered for 2026 — the lowest count since 2016. Of those, he reported that 80 were introduced and 65 were ultimately enacted into law. On the broader drafting workload, Obrecht said LSO handled 509 bill-drafting requests last year; 165 of those were committee bill requests (about 32% of total requests).

Obrecht attributed the downward shift in committee-bill numbers partly to fewer committee meeting days during the prior year and to changes in staffing and training practices that send more staff to meetings for exposure to the legislative process. He said turnover and a greater focus on in-house training can change the raw count of staff days even when the number of meetings is similar.

Obrecht also introduced Savannah Strong as the new assistant fiscal officer — a position approved in November to support fiscal operations and help staff committee work. Council members asked clarifying questions about how staffing days were counted and whether specific bill topics would translate into next-session legislation; Obrecht said committee work could yield an estimated three bills from the agriculture committee’s priorities, for example.

The council thanked Obrecht and asked staff to continue circulating the statistics and to provide follow-up details where needed.