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Committee reviews technical corrections bill; staff outlines grammatical, nomenclature and cross‑reference updates
Summary
Members of the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee on Feb. 28 reviewed a committee bill of technical corrections that makes grammar and style edits, updates terminology in several statutory titles, renames certain committees for clarity on IT/cyber matters, and sets an effective date of July 1.
The Government Operations & Military Affairs committee on Feb. 28 conducted a line‑by‑line review of a committee technical corrections bill that would make editorial, cross‑reference and nomenclature changes across multiple statutory titles and update committee names used in the statutes.
Committee staff walked members through dozens of non‑substantive edits: changing gendered pronouns to nongendered language, replacing the word “regulations” with “rules” in some sections, standardizing capitalization and reader‑assistance headings, striking obsolete text, correcting cross references, and renumbering lists to match committee style. The presenter said the bill includes an interpretation provision that gives priority to later bills that make substantive changes to the same law. Committee staff noted the measure would take effect July 1 if that timing is retained.
The review listed specific changes by statutory title and page: Title 28 would change the term “inmate” to “offender” in at least one definitional passage; Title 32 would replace the phrase “comprehensive annual financial report” with “annual comprehensive financial report,” adding the acronym ACFR; multiple pages (noted in the review as pages 80–99) receive punctuation, conjunction, and capitalization edits; and some reader‑assistance headings would be added or removed for consistency. The presenter said time‑limited references would be struck where they no longer belong in statute.
The bill also updates committee names used in statutory cross references. The discussion noted a change replacing the short code HGA OMA with “house committee on energy and digital Infrastructure” for matters that involve information technology and cybersecurity. Committee staff indicated the green books and other legislative reference materials would be updated to reflect the current names in legislative history.
A point raised during the review concerned historical recordkeeping: one member asked whether changing committee names in the statutes would obscure which committee acted on a matter at a given time. Staff replied that legislative history would still show prior committee names and that those changes would be discoverable with additional research.
Members posed several editorial questions (for example, whether to prefer “fewer” rather than “less” in specific provisions), and the presenter and staff said they would work with members on section‑by‑section edits before the measure is finalized. Staff reiterated that the package is currently a committee bill; if the committee reports it out, it would convert into a bill for further action.
No formal motions or roll‑call votes were recorded in the transcript of the review.
