Step 1 - Find the Bill number of the statute you wish to research.
- This step requires the researcher to already have a provision of the Florida statues they wish to research in mind.
- Once you have a statutory section you wish to research, look up this section via Florida's Online Sunshine, Florida Senate, or commercial database of your choice.
- Listed at the bottom of each statutory section will be a History of the bill. History notations are presented in chronological order with the oldest being the origination of the statute.
- Each citation listed in the history section corresponds with a Session Law or Laws of Florida citation. Make note of which amendment(s) you wish to research.
- Look up this Laws of Florida/session law citation via the Laws of Florida page of State Library or a commercial database of your choice.
- Once you have found your Laws of Florida document, review the document for the legislative bill number which should appear at the top of the first page.
Step 2 - With the Bill number discovered, trace the bills history by consulting the Final Legislative Bill Information.
- Final Legislative Bill Information should be reviewed for information such as names of the committees to which the bill was referred, dates on which any important actions such as readings or debates occurred, and votes on the bill from both committees and entire bodies.
Step 3 - Review the committee reports/staff analysis for each Bill that has amended your statute.
- Committee Reports and Staff Analysis' provide the most insight into the purpose behind a particular legislative item including what considerations the committee made in reviewing, amending, and/or approving a particular bill for consideration by the entire chamber.
- Committees may also amend bills, or replace a bill with a committee written substitute. The committee reports will often address the rationale behind amendments.
Step 4 - Consult Florida House and Senate Journals for texts of any floor amendments.
- The Journal of each chamber will contain a daily record of the legislative session. Detailed information regarding bill actions can be found by referring to important dates discovered in Step 2 and then reviewing the Journal for that particular date.
- After the bills emerge from the committees, they must be "read" on the floor of the chamber.
- Generally, after the second reading and before the third reading members of the body will have an opportunity to propose amendments to the legislation. These amendments will be noted in the Journal of the respective chamber on the day in which the action took place (refer back to Step 2 for important dates).
- The Journal of a respective chamber will also list a detailed vote summary on dates in which committees or the entire body voted on the legislation.
