Legislators and committees of the Legislature may officially request the drafting of bills. Legislative Services Division staff draft all bills to ensure they comply with bill drafting requirements.

Legislators may request bill drafts subject to the following:

• Holdover senators (those not required to run for re-election) may request bill drafts at any time; bill drafting begins in earnest the September preceding a session. After candidate-filing for the Legislature closes or after the primary election, legislators may begin to request bill drafts if they are running unopposed.
• After the general election, all legislators, including holdover senators, unopposed legislators, and newly elected legislators, may request an unlimited number of bills or resolutions to be drafted before 5 p.m. on December 5 preceding a regular session.
• After 5 p.m. on December 5, legislators may request no more than 7 bill drafts, at least 5 of which must be requested before the session convenes.
• After December 5, legislators may grant unused bill draft requests to other legislators.

These restrictions do not apply to bills proposed by the Code Commissioner in the Legislative Services Division, bills or resolutions requested by standing committees, or bills or resolutions requested on behalf of newly elected state officials.