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Chamber Automation In The Nebraska Legislature

By:

ASLCS Home Page

Nebraska's legislative process has increased its efficiency in the 1997 session by furnishing senators with quicker access to bills, amendments, and other supporting information on the chamber floor. Instead of having to wait for copies or search through bill books, senators command the information with the touch of a fingertip on a computer screen.

All 49 senators and some legislative staff are equipped with Panasonic laptop computers at their desks in the chamber. The goals for the automation project include:

The idea for improving the legislative computer system and services was initiated in September 1993 when the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature's Executive Board contracted with the National Conference of State Legislatures for a study of the computer services provided to senators and legislative staff. The study included an overview of the Legislature's existing computer system, a review of policies and procedures governing access to the system, identification of current and potential future computer needs of members and staff, and a comparison of Nebraska's system and services with those of other states.

Findings of the study showed that the mainframe and personal computer technology were outdated, and there was a need for more computers, database search capabilities and improved electronic public access. In the past, information, i.e., bill status, introduced bills, agendas, and statutes, was accessible only from the mainframe through the Nebraska Legislative Shared Information System. The public could access this information for a fee.

During the spring of 1994, the Executive Board of the Legislative Council assigned priority status to the purchase of more up-to-date computer technology for senators' offices. The IBM PS/2, 286-based computers, purchased in 1988, were replaced by Compaq, 486-based computers. The older PC's were not capable of running current software or the more user-friendly Windows operating environment. This purchase opened the door to consideration of better software products for database searching of legislative documents and improved electronic public access to legislative information.

In addition, there was a goal of having one computer for each staff person in each legislator's office. Before this purchase, each senator's office had only one PC and committee offices had an additional mainframe terminal. Very few senators used legislative computers, and staff had insufficient computer resources to complete their work. By late 1994 many requests for access to computers, especially laptops, were being made by senators. A few IBM laptops were purchased for use on a checkout basis by senators and staff.

By 1995 the demand for laptop computers increased to the point that a survey was undertaken by the Legislative Computer Services office to decide how many laptops should be purchased for use by legislators. Almost all 49 senators said that they or their staff needed access to a laptop computer. Most senators wanted to use a laptop in their home district for access to legislative databases and other applications (Nebraska does not have district offices for members). At this point, in a meeting with the Chair of the Executive Board, division directors, and the manager of the computer services office, Clerk of the Legislature Patrick O'Donnell proposed that the time had come to study the possibility of purchasing laptops, in conjunction with a larger chamber automation project. This chamber automation project was envisioned to satisfy the goals of (1) providing reliable information for the legislative process in the chamber and (2) developing a system that would allow legislators to connect remotely to the legislature's network, and thereby provide access and use of the computer when the legislature is not in session.

In the fall of 1995 the Executive Board appointed a task force of seven state senators to study the potential for chamber automation, including a computerized system for allowing senators to access legislative documents from their desks. Ron Gerdes, a computer analyst assigned to the Clerk of the Legislature's Office and the Revisor of Statutes Office, gathered technical information on the subject from legislative computer personnel in other states that already had initiated chamber automation projects. Based on those interviews, legislative staff visited the California Assembly and the Iowa Legislature to see firsthand how automated chamber systems worked in those states.

In late fall of 1995, the task force recommended the development of a prototype during the 1996 session, with the help of C/S Builders, Inc., Sacramento, CA, a consulting company that had designed a similar system for the California Assembly. The prototype project cost $57,000. The initial design decisions involved which documents would be made available, how the system would be navigated, and what user interface would be used.

Toshiba 410 and NEC Versa laptops were used in the prototype. Documents made available included the daily agenda, bill status, introduced bills, final reading bills, adopted amendments, fiscal notes, statements of intent, and committee statements. Text of bills and amendments was displayed with line and page numbers equivalent to current printed versions for easy reference. Overstrikes and underscored text were correctly displayed to show deleted and added language.

The screen display resembled a tabbed notebook, with each tab representing a different touch-activated option taking the user to individual documents. A touch screen user interface was chosen to improve ease of use.

Senators were given "hands-on" experience with the prototype during the session. Legislators' initial responses were positive. More than 60 suggestions were offered and included when the complete system was implemented.

Development of the prototype showed that the necessary documents, which originate on several different computer platforms, needed to be reformatted to facilitate speed of access to the information. Because of the amount of reformatting the potential existed for text of the official documents to be altered in the process, which was a major concern. Most of these issues were resolved by the start of the 1997 session.

The Executive Board gave final approval in September 1996 for full chamber automation in time for the 1997 session. A request for purchase was formulated, outlining specifications for bidders, including laptop style and touch-screen user interface. The bid was awarded to a Nebraska vendor for 58 Panasonic laptops.

The Panasonic laptops cost about $4,500 per unit. Each unit is powered by a Pentium 75MHz microprocessor with 16 MB of RAM memory. They include 810 MB hard drives, 28,800 baud modems that may be upgraded to 33,600 baud, and 4x speed CD-ROM drives. Adding a touch screen interface increased the cost of each unit by approximately $600. An additional server, three high-speed printers, chamber wiring, and consulting fees brought the total cost to about $390,000.

The laptops weigh about eight pounds. Legislators will be able to access the system in their offices, which are already connected to a legislative local area network, and remotely, via modems dialing into a winframe server.

The system is integrated with the Daktronics voting board system, which allows the bill under consideration during floor activities to automatically appear on the laptop screens. Movement from one bill to another is controlled by the clerk as legislators move through the daily agenda. Senators are able to work on bills that are not currently under consideration if they so choose.

The documents available in the Chamber come from two primary sources-the mainframe and the Legislature's local area network (LAN). The mainframe documents are produced using Script/VS and DCF. Included in this group of documents are all versions of the bill text (introduced, final reading, and slip law) and amendments that are prepared by the Revisor of Statutes, who is the bill drafter for the Legislature. These DCF documents, all of which are created in the Revisor's office, are made public by the Clerk's office and formatted by the state's Central Data Processing Division. (Central Data Processing is a division of the Department of Administrative Services which is part of the Executive Branch of Nebraska State Government.) The formatting includes adding page and line numbers to the documents and converting them to Postscript format for publishing and display on the Chamber system. Each Postscript file is given a long name that includes database field attribute information, such as bill number and bill version. After each file is named it is transferred by FTP to the Chamber DB2 database and out to the members of the Legislature.

There is also a smaller flow of information going the opposite direction, specifically Floor Amendments which are entered into the system from the Legislative Chamber. These amendments are entered into a personal computer in Word Perfect. They are then reformatted to a Postscript file which is transferred to the Chamber database, and also into an ASCII file with DCF commands for upload to the mainframe files in the Revisor's office.

Postscript conversion of the larger documents, such as bills and amendments, provides a "go to page" option to Legislators for quick access to particular portions of documents. This option is fast and efficient on the network because only a single page is transmitted. Legislators may print one page or a range of pages up to a maximum of 10 pages on two 12-page-per-minute Postscript printers located in the rear of the Chamber.

Other documents, such as the daily agenda, fiscal notes, and statements of intent are created in Word Perfect and stored as ASCII documents on the LAN. Committee statements are created on the mainframe and downloaded as ASCII files. These ASCII documents are named in a similar manner as bills and amendments and are then transferred to the Chamber DB2 database.

All of these documents are displayed on Legislators' laptops using a notebook metaphor, with a tabbed page for each individual document. For example, there is a tabbed page for the daily agenda, the bill itself, the committee statement on the bill, amendments to the bill, etc. However, for documents with multiple forms and versions, such as bills and fiscal notes, and for pages that display multiple documents, such as amendment pages, each tabbed page serves a dual role. Each of these tabbed pages contains a multiple entry list and a detail document. Both forms require special handling due to the varied needs of the Senators. Those needs include accessing floor amendments, previously considered amendments, and precise page and line numbers.

The document page retains its page and line positioning so that comparison between pages, such as the amendment and bill pages, is possible. The pending amendment page includes amendments and motions that can be added to and prioritized on the floor of the Chamber. To ensure that all displays are current, the screen is refreshed every 60 seconds.

The Chamber System tracks the floor activity, following the agenda entered on the Daktronics voting system. Tracking is accomplished with Netbios commands that send bill and amendment numbers as they are considered to a monitoring application which stores them in the Chamber DB2 database. Bill Status information is the default display when each bill comes up for consideration.

Legislators can move through documents using the following functions: to top, to bottom, next page, previous page, next line, and previous line. Postscript documents also have a "go to page" feature and a function which allows a member to move a selected line to the middle of the page.

The Nebraska Legislature's chamber automation system became operational on January 8, 1997, the first day of the Ninety-Fifth Legislature, First Session. The following are observations made after four months of watching the system operate and noting how members have used it.

Initially, the chamber automation system required a member of the computer staff to be on the floor of the legislature at all times during sessions. This staff member assisted members as questions arose. This need will likely diminish over time since the system itself has stabilized and members are becoming more familiar with its use. However, a state contemplating a chamber system should recognize that additional staff resources may be required in the chamber to assist members and monitor the system. This may pose a particular problem for those states that restrict staff access to the floor.

As with all new systems, there were growing pains. A number of late night efforts were required to solve the technical problems. After the first month, the number of late nights required of our computer service personnel decreased dramatically.

A new impression has been created in the Chamber itself. Legislators still may have "bill books" that include copies of all legislative bills, amendments, committee statements, fiscal notes, etc. However, many members no longer use such hard copies. This has improved the symmetry and aesthetics of the chamber. Bill books will be continued as long as they are needed by the members; however, the reduction in the number of bill books has created the impression of a more orderly and organized chamber.

Secondly, there is the matter of enhancements and members' requirements. Specifically, no matter how comprehensive a system is developed, there will be a desire by individual members to add enhancements, options, and customization. Individual members are prohibited from adding their own software. Additional features are added to the system based on what is institutionally appropriate. Typically, this is based upon staff recommendations with the ultimate determination made by our Management Committee. Some enhancements have been added, including journal page reference number, and an historic file that shows the disposition of amendments and motions, i.e., adopted, defeated, withdrawn. In addition, customization has occurred for left-handed members by reversing the arrangement of the control buttons.

Members will continue to request more features on the system. It is important to have a planning process in place to manage system changes.

Finally, some institutional observations can be made. Members monitor ongoing activity much more quickly. This has created a situation in which a member comes to the chamber, presses a button, and reviews the total number of potential amendments to any given piece of legislation. If the bill under consideration happens to be a difficult issue with many pending amendments, often the member may decide to leave the floor. As a result, members may be spending more time in their offices and less time on the floor of the legislature. This can have both good and bad results. On the positive side, members have a greater ability to more efficiently manage their time and responsibilities, and to rearrange their priorities. However, the absence of members from the floor may not serve the best interest of the institution itself, as demonstrated by C-span's coverage of the U. S. House of Representatives, where members often speak to an essentially empty chamber. More significantly, members may be less informed if they are not present to evaluate arguments being made on the floor.

It is important to make a final observation at this point. Specifically, floor debate, at least in Nebraska's nonpartisan unicameral structure, can and often does make a difference in how members vote on an issue. If members spend more time in their offices, the opportunity to hear those arguments is reduced, even though TV coverage of floor activity is available in those offices. Spending more time in offices may reduce interaction between members. Collegiality plays a role in our legislative process. Members get to know each other, spend time with each other, and understand how each other thinks. Some of those opportunities may be lost when members are not present together on the floor. This may potentially reduce the necessary human interaction that historically has been an integral component of Nebraska's legislative process.

For more information about ASLCS, write or call:

Joan Barilla
National Conference of State Legislatures
7700 East First Place
Denver, CO 80230
Phone: 303/856-1349
FAX: 303/364-7800
E-mail: joan.barilla@ncsl.org