Legislative Information Center

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Classes and Tutorials

Contact LIC: (360) 786-7573  |  Legislative Building, Room 110  |  P.O. Box 40500, Olympia, WA 98504-0500

The Legislative Information Center offers free classes to the public and to state agencies on understanding the legislative process and navigating the legislative website. Class recordings are linked below.​ 


Classes Offered

We recommend that Understanding the Legislative Process is taken as a precursor to Navigating the Legislative Website, which should be taken as a precursor to the Advanced Legislative Website Use class.  


​Class Name​Scheduling

Understanding the Legislative Process (no captions)

Understanding the Legislative Process (with captions)​

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All classes are recorded and available online.

You can click the titles listed to the left here

or scroll down to "Watch Online."


Questions or Comments? 

Please call LIC 360-786-7573 or email Support@leg.wa.gov.


 



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​​Navigating the Legislative Website​

​​​Advanced Legislative Website Use



Detailed Class Descriptions

Understanding the Legislative Process (about 1 hr / Class Handout​, Watch Online-no captions​, Watch Online-with captions​
This class is an in-depth view of the bi-cameral legislative system, how it is organized, and how a bill becomes law.    The class includes:

  • A detailed review of how a bill gets introduced and who can introduce it
  • Standing committee proceedings and actions
  • Rules committee proceeding and actions
  • The amendment process
  • Activities in the opposite house
  • Dispute and concurrence resolution
  • The Governor's actions and veto powers

Navigating the Legislative Website (about 1 hr / Class Handout, Watch Online)
This class provides an overview of navigating the Legislature's website, includes information on what's new to the website, and gives direction on how to:

  • Look up RCWs, WACs, and Procedural Rules
  • Find bill information
  • Use daily standard reports
  • List bills by topic
  • Find your district and legislators
  • Obtain member contact information

Advanced Legislative Website Use (about 1 hr / Class Handout, Watch Online)
This class is an in-depth course on use of the Legislature's advanced features.  It includes how to: 

  • Use Detailed Legislative Reports
  • Set up and use the website's bill tracking system
  • Use the advanced search engines to locate bills and laws
  • Find old bills from previous sessions
  • Set up and use the GovDelivery e-mail notification system for hearing times and agendas 


Additional Resources 

Educational materials regarding the Legislative process can be found under the Legislative Publications, Maps, Rosters, & Guides web page.  A listing of current instructional documents and videos are provided below.  Please email us at support@leg.wa.gov on suggestions, questions, or comments regarding instructional documents and videos.

​Tutorial
​Description
​Bill Tracking (Watch Online​)

How to track specific current biennium bills.
​Legislative Search (Watch Online​)
​How to use the legislative search function to find bills, RCWs, etc. 
​E-Mail Notification of Hearings (PDF)
​​An overview of GovDelivery (e-mail subscription management system) and how to sign up to receive committee hearing notifications.
How to Read the Bill History Page​ (PDF) (Video)​Choose to view either the instructional document or a short video that provides an overview on the structure of the bill history web page.
​RSS for Bill Tracking and Status Change Notification (PDF)​How to sign up to receive bill status RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication, technology that distributes web content for simplifying the number of websites you visit).
​How to Search for Bills on the Legislative Website (PDF)How to search for specific bills by bill number, subject matter, RCW cross reference, or sponsor.
​How to Research an RCWs History (PDF)
Step-by-step instructions on how to track the history of an RCW.