Engrossed bills

Collection

Identifier: RG002_013

Staff Only

Scope and Content

This subgroup is comprised of volumes of Engrossed Bills. Engrossed Bills are those legislative acts and resolutions that having been passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate are appropriately signed by the Engrossing Committee, Clerk of the Senate, President of the Senate, Clerk of the House, Speaker of the House, and the Governor. The requisite endorsement of the Governor coupled with two or more of the above signatures advances the Engrossed Act into law. The presence of the actual signatures indicates the original document. These original volumes have been certified and subsequent copies were produced. Duplicates of this series can be found at [CSL call number 345.2 C761b]. Whereas this original series has no index the printed copies contain an index to each session of the Assembly.

Dates

Creation: 1859-1994

Language of Materials

The records are in English.

Restrictions on Access

See the Rules and Procedures for Researchers Using Archival Records and Secured Collections policy.

Restrictions on Use

See the Reproduction and Publications of State Library Collections policy.

Historical Note

Chapter II, section one and two of the Public Acts of 1859 specifies that the Secretary of the State upon the adjournment of the General Assembly shall cause all Engrossed Bills which have been signed and appropriately approved to be bound in a volume and shall record the same by title in the public records of the state. Thereafter, the bills shall be known as Public Acts passed by the General Assembly. Copies are to be made and certified by the Secretary of the State as copies of the record. Section six of the same chapter refers to the printing and distribution of Special Acts (called Private Acts prior to 1872) and resolutions by the Secretary of the State. These guidelines are similar to those of the Public Acts.

The General Assembly met annually until 1887. From 1889 to 1971 the Assembly met biannually. It has met annually since 1971.

Extent

78 cubic feet

Additional Description

Abstract

Arrangement

The volumes are arranged chronologically. Between 1859 and 1878 the volumes are handwritten. The volume of bills for the session held in 1891 is missing.

The acts are arranged as follows: 1859 is arranged by the order in which the Engrossing Clerk prepared the documents for the Governor's signature; 1860-1861 arranged numerically by Public Act number and Private Act number (Arabic numerals), then chronologically by approval date (there are sporadic exceptions to this); 1862-1973 Public Acts are arranged by chapter number (1862-1889 chapter numbers are roman numerals, 1901 to present are Arabic numerals). The Acts are marked with their original bill number. Special Acts are arranged by Special Act number (Arabic numerals), then chronologically by approval date (there are sporadic exceptions to this). 1973 to 1994 Public Acts are arranged by a Public Act number which is made of the last two numbers of the year and an assigned number (example 84-105). These Acts are also marked with their original bill numbers. Special Acts are arranged similarly using the year and Special Act number. The original bill number also appears on the document.

Provenance

The General Assembly submitted these records to the Office of the Secretary of the State, which subsequently transferred them to the Connecticut State Library. Accession T002461 contains Engrossed Bills, 1859-1972. All other former accessions dealing with Engrossed Bills and indices were combined into accession 1986-008.

The following accessions were combined into accession 1986-008:

Accession T001607 contained approval dates of Public and Special Acts, 1923-1950.

Accession T001608 contained index of Public and Special Acts, 1957-1961.

Accession T001580 contained indices of Preliminary and Unimportant records, 1936-1976.

Accession T001510 contained Engrossed Bills, 1973-1978 Public Acts part 1.

Accession 1985-030 was transferred to the State Library on November 25, 1985 and contained Engrossed Bills, 1978 Public Acts part 2; 1979-1982.

Accession 1986-008 was transferred to the State Library on March 7, 1986. It contained Engrossed Bills, 1983-1984 and indices of Preliminary and Unimportant records, 1977-1983.

Accession 1988-004 contained Engrossed Bills, 1978 Public Acts part 3; 1978 Special Acts part 1; 1985-1986.

Accession 1997-011 was transferred to the State Library on July 23, 1996. It contained Engrossed Bills, 1987 and indices of Preliminary and Unimportant records, 1984-1987.

Accession 1998-034 was transferred to the State Library on March 10, 1998. It contained Engrossed Bills, 1988-1990 and indices of Preliminary and Unimportant records, 1988-1990.

Accession 2007-011 contained Engrossed Bills, 1991-1994 and indices of Preliminary and Unimportant records, 1991-1994.