Navigating the Legislative Website
About the Legislative Website
Accessing Past Minnesota Statutes
For past versions of the Minnesota Statutes back to 1997, go to the Minnesota Statutes Archive page.
Bills
The full text of bills is provided by the Office of the Revisor of
Statutes and is moved into publicly accessible areas by House and Senate Index
once the bills become public. The Revisor's computer automatically updates the
files hourly.
Introductions: Bills are made public only after they have
received their first reading in the House or the Senate.
Engrossments: When a bill is amended, the new text is
available after all the amendments have been incorporated into the old text. The
process of engrossing a bill takes place only after the amendments have been
approved by the entire House or Senate. After that approval, the amendments and
the old bill are merged by the Revisor of Statutes and a new version of the bill
is produced. The new version is delivered to the House or Senate desks and
copies are distributed to the appropriate locations. At that time, House or
Senate Index move the new version to the public area and it is then available
for the hourly automatic update process.
Bill Tracking
Official actions: Official bill status information is provided by the Office of
Revisor of Statutes and is updated once each day around midnight. The main (top)
section of each bill status record lists only official actions, that is, actions
taken on the floor of the House or Senate. These are the actions reported in the
official House and Senate journals.
Unofficial actions: Following the main bill status record there may be a section for
unofficial actions, that is, actions that took place at committee meetings.
Unofficial committee actions are entered by House or Senate committee staff, who
should be contacted with questions.
Documents in Adobe PDF Format
Some documents provided by the Minnesota Legislative website are in Adobe
PDF format. To access these documents, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader,
which is available to download for
free. Adobe also provides a set of free accessibility tools that
allow visually disabled users to read documents in Adobe PDF format.
Linking Policy
The Minnesota Legislative website encourages linking to our
information, provided the source of the information is clearly identified and
the information is accurately updated. Links to outside websites are limited.
The outside websites linked to from this website are not created, maintained,
or endorsed by the Minnesota Legislature.
Privacy Policy
Any information we collect or request of you as you use this site will be used only to respond to your questions,
provide services you request, perform routine system maintenance, track information about traffic to the site, and
improve our website structure. The Minnesota State Legislature collects information generated by visits to our
website only to: analyze traffic patterns; to collect information you specifically provide to us, such as in surveys;
to provide interactive and alerting services; and to verify appropriate use of the site. We do not track users or
use the system logs or other records for any other purpose. Nor do we sell, rent or otherwise improperly disclose
any information to any other group or individual about users of this website.
Cookies
Third-party, session specific cookies may be used on the Legislature’s website to improve the user experience and for basic web metrics. The Legislature
does not use the information for other purposes.
Updates
Some data is updated daily during the legislative session. Other
data is revised as necessary. It could be weekly, monthly, or annually. The most
recent revision or review date should be listed near the bottom of each
document. An "old" date does not necessarily mean that the document is outdated.
Some data changes rarely (the state constitution, for example).
For daily updates of bill status, see the Bill Status Data Files.
Staff
The website is maintained jointly by staff of the House, Senate,
and joint offices (for example, the Office of Revisor of Statutes and the Legislative
Reference Library).
Awards
2010
City Pages Best Local Website - Best Local Website - Minnesota State Legislature
2009
Website Accessibility Award - The Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans awarded the Minnesota Legislative Networking Group (LNET) its Website Access Award. According to Mary Hartnett,
Commission Director, "The work [LNET has] done voluntarily to improve access on the web is impressive and shows a commitment to including all citizens in the legislative process."
2006
NALIT/LINCS Online Democracy Award - NCSL’s Legislative Information and Communication Staff Section (LINCS) and National Association of Legislative Information Technology (NALIT)
The Online Democracy Award seeks to recognize a state legislative Web site that stands out for making democracy user-friendly. Minnesota's website was recognized for its "ease of navigation, advanced searchability and multitude of content."
2005
Digital Government Achievement Award - Center for Digital Government
The Center for Digital Government is an international research and advisory institute on information technology
in government and education.
2003
Best of the Web: State Legislature - Center for Digital Government
The Center for Digital Government, an international research and advisory institute on information technology
in government and education holds this contest annually for different categories of government websites.
The Minnesota Legislative website placed first in the State Legislatures category. A panel of IT experts judged
each entry based on its innovation, Web-based delivery of public services, efficiency, economy and functionality
for improved citizen access.
Digital Legislatures Survey - 2nd Place Ranking - Center for Digital Government
The Center for Digital Government, an international research and advisory institute on information technology
in government and education holds this contest annually. This award recognizes innovative use of technology to enhance
services to its members and citizens, while increasing operational efficiencies.
2002
Digital Legislatures Award - 6th Place Ranking
The first annual Digital Legislatures Award from the Center for Digital Government and Government
Technology magazine recognizes legislatures that have made it
simpler for the public to participate in legislative activities.
Outside Contributors Award - Minnesota Association for Continuing
Adult Education
This award is given in recognition of an individual
or group which has done much for the adult education effort, but is not directly
in the field. LNET, the Legislative website's collaborative implementation
group received the award for providing legislative information in the most
accessible way possible.
2001
"Best Site" for State Codes - American Association of Law
Libraries
The American Association of Law Libraries has selected the
Minnesota Legislature's Web page for Minnesota Statutes, Session Laws and
Rules as a "Best Site" for State Codes. State Codes (also called
statutes or statutory codes) are the subject compilation of the laws passed by
the legislature and currently in force. A subgroup of AALL selected our website
after reviewing many comparable state websites. AALL lists many of the notable features
of this Minnesota Legislative website.
Eagle E-government Award - Best Legislative Branch website
The
Minnesota State Legislature website (http://www.leg.state.mn.us/) was the 2001
recipient of The Council of State Governments' Eagle E-government Award for Best
Legislative Branch website. The Minnesota Legislature's website is a
cooperative effort by many legislative offices. Sites were judged on ease of
use, design, accessibility to the public, technological innovation, and how
effectively the website streamlines government and delivers better customer
service.
2000
Britannica.com editors have selected your site as one of the best on the
Internet when reviewed for quality, accuracy of content, presentation and
usability. As a result, we would like to offer you the opportunity to join in
the launch of our new link exchange program. This program will give you and
other top quality sites the opportunity to add a Britannica search box to your
site and thereby provide your users with direct access to Britannica's
awarding-winning content, including the trusted and authoritative Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
1999
Legal Information Institute Honor Roll - State
Statutes
The
Minnesota Legislative site is included the LII's state law Honor Roll as of
Sept. 1999.
Key features these sites share are: They offer up-to-date
versions of the state's statutes. They can be browsed following the structural
framework of the code (from title to chapter to section). They allow pin-point
links to individual sections as well as links to larger units.
1998
MN Online
Mon, 20 Jul 1998
Congratulations!
Your
website has been reviewed by our editors and will be featured in this week's MN
Online. MN Online is a community-based website sponsored by MRNet and is
available on the WWW at http://www.mnonline.org.
Links2Go Key Resource Award
Congratulations! Your page:
http://www.leg.state.mn.us/ has been selected to receive a Links2Go Key Resource
award in the Minnesota topic. The Links2Go Key Resource award is both exclusive
and objective. Fewer than one page in one thousand will ever be selected for
inclusion. Further, unlike most awards that rely on the subjective opinion of
"experts," many of whom have only looked at tens or hundreds of thousands of
pages in bestowing their awards, the Links2Go Key Resource award is completely
objective and is based on an analysis of millions of web pages. During the
course of our analysis, we identify which links are most representative of each
of the thousands of topics in Links2Go, based on how actual page authors, like
yourself, index and organize links on their pages. Links2Go Awards
awards@links2go.com
1997
Editor's Choice Award - LookSmart
LookSmart, the next
generation of Web directories committed to quality and superior user Web
experience, is delighted to award you The Editor's Choice Award for the
following sites: www.leg.state.mn.us/. This award conveys the highest standard
for providing a useful and high quality Website.
1996
legal.online --
legal.online's first-ever Best of the
Web for Lawyers awards. The site was awarded honorable mention in the category
Best Research Site, Laws. Winners were selected by a panel of lawyers who are
Internet experts and innovators. Panel members were asked to apply three
criteria: content, design and usefulness to lawyers. Your site and other award
winners are reviewed in this month's special first-anniversary issue of
legal.online. Complete information about the awards is also available online.
1995
John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award
From the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information for leadership in support of open
government and the public's right to know. Presented March 16, 1995.