The Chief Clerk, a constitutional officer, serves at the pleasure of the Speaker.  The Chief Clerk shall perform the ministerial duties assigned by the Speaker. The duties shall include keeping and publishing a correct Journal of House proceedings; publishing other House documents; attesting to all necessary documents; and supervising the custody of all legislation, records, and documents of the House.  The Office of the Clerk is a non-partisan, non-political office.

  DEPUTY CLERK

The Chief Clerk of the House has a Deputy Clerk of the House who oversees each separate unit of the Clerk’s Office and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the office. In addition, the Deputy Clerk assists the Chief Clerk in his duties and responsibilities throughout the year.

Units within the Office of the Clerk include the following: Administrative, Bill Processing, Calendar, Journal, Photography, and Print Services.

  ADMINISTRATIVE

The staff in this unit of the Clerk’s Office provides administrative support to all units within the Clerk’s Office. In addition, they respond to general inquiries as well as requests for publications such as Staff Directory, Member Directory, The Rules, People of Lawmaking, The Clerk’s Manual, Guide to Florida Government, and more.

The staff assists the public in locating their state representatives, senators, and Congressmen; provides statistical information; assists in bill tracking; and directs research questions to the appropriate individual or office.

  BILL PROCESSING

The Bill Processing unit is composed of Engrossing and Enrolling, Messages, and Records Management. 

Engrossing and Enrolling staff incorporate amendments adopted by House or Senate floor action into House bills. In many instances, a bill is amended at several stages of floor consideration. Each time amendments are adopted, a new version of the bill, which reflects those changes, is prepared. This is done overnight so the correct version of the bill is before the House the next session day. The Engrossing area is a secured area during session with access limited to authorized staff only.

Once bills have passed both the House and Senate, they are enrolled, signed by the Speaker, President, Chief Clerk, and Secretary, and presented to the Governor for his action.

The Engrossing and Enrolling staff compile and publish the Guide to Florida Government, the House of Representatives Staff Directory, and other projects and publications as assigned.

When the Legislature is in session, the Messages unit is responsible for processing legislation traveling between the two houses.

The Messages staff ensures that bills received from the Senate and traveling to the Speaker’s Office of the House arrive in proper form and are accompanied by a message which accurately reflects the Senate’s action on a bill. Additionally, this office is responsible for sending messages to the Senate indicating the House’s action on a bill and action requested of the Senate.

Messages received from the Senate go to the House floor attached to a bill. Message language, speed, and accurate record-keeping may mean life or death for a bill. Messages staff keeps a record of all messages sent and received. This is another area of the Clerk’s Office with very limited access.

All House bills are numbered and electronically submitted by House Bill Drafting to a printer in the Records Management unit to begin their journey through the system. The bills then go through a check list for constitutionality and other requirements.

Meeting notices, committee attendance roll calls, vote sheets, and committee reports on bills voted on by committee are electronically retrieved by this unit for final archival and inclusion in the Calendar.

During the interim, staff members process requests for bills to be withdrawn prior to introduction by a letter of authorization from the sponsor. Once session has begun, a member who wishes to withdraw a bill from further consideration must make a motion to withdraw the bill during a floor session.

Another area of responsibility of the staff in this unit is to track actions taken on the bills from the point of referral by the Speaker through committee and to the Chamber for final House consideration. The staff accounts for all amendments that are filed to bills and those amendments are filed in the bill jackets in the prescribed order of consideration on the House floor.
After session each year, this unit is responsible for an accounting of all bills that died either in committee, in messages, or on the Calendar. The bills are held for a period of time and then archived with the Department of State.

  CALENDAR

This unit plays an important role in committee and Chamber activities. Calendar staff tracks a bill all the way through the committee process and monitors its availability for placement on the Calendar of the House.

During the legislative interim, an Interim Calendar, listing bills to be considered and other pertinent legislative information, is prepared in advance of each round of committee meetings.

During session, there is a daily Calendar that is printed in-house in Print Services overnight, which sets out the agenda for the day. The Calendar includes the assorted bill progress calendars which help determine where a particular bill is in the House’s legislative process.

It also includes information regarding committee meetings scheduled for that day and the following weekdays. Daily Calendars are available on the House legislative website as well as in printed form.

The Calendar staff maintains the database for members’ web pages and compiles and publishes the House Directory in addition to maintaining and publishing the committee, members, and House staff information in various forms.  They are also responsible for publishing the Clerk’s Manual.

  JOURNAL

The Journal is required by the Florida Constitution and House Rules and is the legal record of the proceedings of the House. The Journals, numbered serially from the first day of each session, record the formal actions of the House and are not a verbatim record. The full text of bill titles and House resolutions, as well as each roll call vote, is printed in the Journal upon final passage.

The Journals are produced overnight and are immediately published on the House legislative website. Printed copies, produced by Print Services, are available to members and the public the following morning.

The daily Journals, after complete verification, are edited and reprinted after sine die adjournment of the Legislature, along with various indices (including sponsors, bills by subject and number, vetoed bills, and votes by sequence number) prepared by Journal staff to provide aid for future research. This bound volume becomes the official record of the proceedings of the House and is published on the House legislative website, replacing the original daily Journals. The Journal area is responsible for maintaining and archiving audio files of House sessions.

  PHOTOGRAPHY

The Photography unit provides session photography, individual shots of members, committee meetings, and other significant legislative events as requested. The Photography unit also makes photographs available for the Photo Album on the House legislative website. In addition, they archive and catalog photographs for future requests.

  PRINT SERVICES

The House Print Services unit consists of Documents and Distribution, Duplicating, Print Shop, and House Stationery. 

This unit prints bills, session summaries, directories, special projects and printing jobs, the Interim Calendar, Guide to Florida Government, The Rules book, daily Journals, and most other printed materials of the House of Representatives.

Duplicating services are also provided for the House. “Request for Duplication” forms must be filled out when requesting copies. The number of copies needed and specific instructions must be provided on the form.

During session, you may obtain copies of floor amendments, roll calls, and other related materials from Print Services.

Guidelines will not allow the copying of personal materials, and duplication of copyrighted materials is prohibited with certain exceptions.

House bills, daily Journals, daily Calendars, and other publications are distributed from the Documents and Distribution office. This is also the distribution center for the Clerk’s Manual, Guide to Florida Government, multiple copies of the directory, and many other House publications.

During regular sessions, Calendars, Journals, and bills are delivered to members’ offices and committees upon request each day. During interims and special sessions, delivery service is not available and these materials may be picked up in the Documents and Distribution office. In addition, there is a CD duplicating machine available in this office for committee staff use.

Engrossed and enrolled bills are provided by this office upon request. Bills and many other printed documents are also available on the House legislative website.

The Stationery office processes staff and member business cards, note cards, and envelope orders that are then sent to the Clerk’s Office Print Shop for printing. Forms are available in Leagis and submitted to this office electronically.