CHIEF CLERK'S OFFICE


When people apply to work for the Chief Clerk's Office, Edward
Burdick says he first asks if they have "any outside activities
that would prevent them from working 25 hours a day during
session."

All joking aside, Chief Clerk Burdick says the staff often works
75 or more hours a week during session, including weekends. They
spend the time processing the enormous paperwork that flows
through the House, including the bills, reports, amendments,
motions, and resolutions that legislators act on.

And because Minnesota is one of the few states that use the
Journal of the House as legal evidence to determine the validity
of a law, the office has to be particularly careful with its
editing, says Burdick.

Last year, for example, the Chief Clerk's Office published the
largest Journal in state history, which was more than 10,000
pages long.

Each day's journal is carefully audited, indexed, corrected, and
proofed so that every bill the state passes will stand up in
court, says Burdick.

The chief clerk is in charge of processing all the bills,
amendments, resolutions, and motions, and he also reads them to
members during each floor session. The chief clerk and his
assistants also teach classes on parliamentary procedure to new
representatives and staff, so members know exactly what they're
doing on the floor of the House. The Chief Clerk's Office staffs
about 25 full-time people, adding three more during session.

At the House desk in the front of the chamber, the Journal editor
records House action for the Journal, including bill
introductions, committee reports, and roll call votes.

In addition to the Journal, the House Desk publishes the daily
agendas to let members and the public know what will happen on
the floor each day.

The agendas list bills under four general headings: General
Orders (bills awaiting preliminary House action); Calendar (bills
awaiting final House action); Consent Calendar (noncontroversial
bills which usually pass without debate); and Special Orders
(bills the House can consider, amend, and pass in one day).

The Index Department indexes bills by number, author, topic, and
section of law being amended. The department is computerized
which allows easy access for members, staff, and the public when
trying to find the status of a bill.

"It's amazing how many bill inquiries the department gets during
a session," says Burdick.

In Minnesota, every time a bill is successfully amended, it is
rewritten and reprinted, notes Burdick. Thus, members and the
public can always get a current version of a bill.

"This is not true in every state," says Burdick. "Pressure is
being put on legislatures to become more accountable, and I think
Minnesota is a leader in this field."

Tight deadlines are a fact of life in the Chief Clerk's Office.
"When the speaker raps the gavel and the House is going to meet
at 2 p.m., we have to be ready at 2 p.m.," says Burdick. When the
gavel comes down signaling adjournment, the staff hurriedly
prepares all the paperwork for the printer so it can be copied
and delivered back to the House by the following morning.

"For example, we'll print a 400-page Journal overnight, which is
unheard of in a lot of other areas," says Burdick. "That's what
we do and we have to do it."

Burdick says if a day's Journal is small, staffers are "lucky to
go home by 8 p.m.; if it's large, which it frequently is, we're
here until midnight or later."

The Chief Clerk's Office, established when Minnesota became a
state in 1858, is the oldest legislative office in Minnesota.
Burdick began working in the House in 1941 as a page. He started
work at the House Desk in 1947 and became an assistant to the
chief clerk in 1953. House members have elected him chief clerk
every session since 1967.



Originally published in 1990 in the Session Weekly, a weekly
newsmagazine published by the Minnesota House Public Information
Office.

***Last Update 8/5/94 (jtt) Last Review 8/5/94 (jtt) ***