BASIS Navigation Tips

By Shana Crondahl, Alaska Education Update

BASIS Website: akleg.gov/index.php

The Legislature’s website has a wealth of information, and with just a little bit of exploration, it’s not too difficult to find your way around. The homepage has tabs at the top for floor calendars and a daily schedule of committee hearings.

Tracking Legislation in BASIS

One of the tabs on the left-hand side of BASIS is BILLS & LAWS, which has links to legislation, committees, hearings, and many ways to sort and find information on legislation. Some links in BILLS & LAWS are:

  • Actions by Date – all floor action on all legislation for any one day, including committee reports, floor votes, and when legislators cosponsor a bill
  • Bills in Committee – all legislation in a particular committee
  • Sponsor Summary – all legislation sponsored by a particular legislator, for example, all legislation that Sen. Stevens has sponsored
  • Subject Summary – all legislation under a particular subject, for example, all education-related legislation
  • Bill Tracking Management Facility (BTMF) – allows a user to set up an account and select bills to receive notification of action on, including being scheduled for a hearing or a floor vote. It’s very helpful if you’re tracking a particular bill and don’t want to keep checking BASIS. (Not a link under BILLS & LAWS, but you can also receive notification on the action of legislation through text message. To receive text message updates, text a bill number to 559-245-2529.)

Status of Legislation

The best way to find the status of a particular bill is to look up the bill in BASIS. On every page on the legislature’s website is a search field where you can enter a bill number. Once you pull up the bill, scroll down and click on the link on the right-hand side of the page to “Display Committee Action with Bill History,” and it will show all the hearings a bill has had. For more information on a bill, there are five tabs just above the link to display committee action:

  • Full Text – Every version of the bill that has been read across on the floor
  • Fiscal Notes – All fiscal notes that have been read across on the floor
  • Amendments – All amendments as they are offered on the floor; does not include amendments offered in committees
  • Minutes and Audio – All minutes and audio of hearings
  • Documents – All documents associated with a bill that a committee aide has posted in BASIS. This is where you will find sponsor statements, sectional analyses, written testimony that has been submitted to the committee, and proposed committee substitutes and fiscal notes that have not yet been read across on the floor.

Publications

On the left side of BASIS is the Publications Tab, which is a page that has links to various publications, including:

  • Directory of State Officials
  • Alaska Constitution
  • Citizen’s Guide to the Constitution
  • Uniform Rules
  • Constitutional Convention Files
  • Executive Orders
  • Administrative Codes, Regulations, & Alaska Statutes
  • Legislator and staff contact lists
  • Handbook on Alaska State Government
  • Guides to the budget process and the legislative process
  • Many other things

Legislative Information Offices

In addition to handling all teleconferences, Legislative Information Office staff are there to help people find information, including helping you find your way around BASIS. The eighth tab down on the left in BASIS will take you to a list of Legislative Information Offices. From there, you can click on a specific LIO and get information on the location, phone number, email address, office hours, parking information, and legislators for that office.

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