Office of Engrossing and Enrolling

The Engrossing and Enrolling Office, a division of the Chief Clerk's Office, carries out the functions discussed in Section 32 (a), (d), and, especially, (i) of the Standing Rules of the Assembly that involve preparing legislation to be printed and finalized before leaving the Assembly. These related functions are described as engrossing and enrolling.

Engrossing consists of proofreading and editing bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments. Three teams of two proofreaders working in tandem proofread legislation to correct errors and conform the text to the Government Printing Office style guidelines and the style and procedure requirements of the Office of State Publishing. This proofreading requires expertise in various professional terminologies, including legal, medical, financial, and chemical terms, as well as the scientific names of various plants and animals. There are also experts on staff to correct Spanish text. In addition, the proofreaders have editing responsibilities which include verifying that the printed text of a bill matches the officially adopted language as amended on the Assembly floor, querying the Legislative Counsel Deputies regarding possible content errors, and checking special projects for the Chief Clerk's Office.

Enrolling entails the organization, coordination, and distribution of the bills and resolutions to be printed for the Assembly. Enrolling staff– a kind of in-house managing editorial desk–organize the bills in numerical order as they are received from the Assembly desk and prepare them for proofreading and printing. The enrolling staff also maintains a temporary archive where bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments are stored until they pass out of the Assembly. While legislation is being proofread, the enrolling staff coordinates with the Governor's office, the Senate, Legislative Counsel, the Office of State Publishing, and the Bill Room to set printing priorities, anticipate deadlines, and authorize corrections and changes. They also monitor floor sessions to forecast Assembly printing needs. Enrolling staff, once the proper authorizations are received, distribute completed bills to the Governor's office for his or her signature or veto and distribute completed resolutions to the Secretary of State to be signed. The signed bills will then finally be printed as sections of the California Codes. The signed resolutions are assigned a chapter number by the Secretary of State and printed in a paperback volume.

All Assembly bills and resolutions pass through the Engrossing and Enrolling Office and are given a thorough check each time they are amended by either house. Over 3000 bills, including the Budget Bill, and 1200 joint, concurrent, and house resolutions are processed by this office during the course of a two-year session.