Committee discussion and testimony for instruments dating from 1976 can be obtained by contacting the docket office of the house in which the bill originated. It is best to know the act number and year of passage. For House bills, contact the House Docket Office (225-342-1986), which will give you the committee information needed to obtain a copy of the committee tapes (note: transcripts are not available) from the Louisiana State Archives. For Senate bills, contact the Senate Docket Office (225-342-2365), which maintains minutes of its committee meetings dating back to 1976.
The legislative calendars (KFL18 .L44) include author and subject indexes to the instruments, as well as a listing, by instrument number, of the dates of consideration, including votes. The page numbers in the calendar entries relate to the page numbers for the day's entries in the journals (House KFL18 .H 68; Senate KFL 8 .L685), which are at the top of the pages in the journals, not the sequential page numbering at the bottom of the pages. For example, we find in the legislative calendar covering the 1996 regular session that senate amendments to House Bill 1 were concurred on June 12, 1996, and page 13 is cited. We then go the section of the House journal covering June 12, and look for page number 13 at the top of the page. Also note that in this case page 13 refers to the beginning of coverage for this information.
The bills (1st Floor Microform Room, Cabinet 46) will include notes comparing the proposed law with previous enactments, if any.
This information will also be found in the Resumé of Acts, Propositions, Vetoed Bills, Resolutions, and Study Requests (KFL 15 .L68 [year]), which will include notes comparing the new law with the prior law in the "Statutes Enacted" section.
The journals are arranged by legislative day. They include roll call votes and, on rare occasions, the short committee reports. These usually take the form of recommendations for rejection or approval of parts or all of a bill, but do not include the reasoning behind the recommendations.
Floor debates are not recorded; committee reports are not published in any form. The journals are found on the second floor of the library at KFL 18 .H 68 for the House and KFL 18 .S46 for the Senate.