Alabama § 29-5A-21 - Duties; Requests for Assistance; Reports of State Agencies and Departments.

§ 29-5A-21. Duties; Requests for Assistance; Reports of State Agencies and Departments.

(a) The Legal Division shall have all of the following duties:

(1) To respond to questions concerning the organization and administration of state government or the operation of constitutional or statutory law.

(2) To render assistance in the drafting of bills and amendments to bills.

(3) To make studies and reports on problems of state and local government in Alabama, either upon request or on its own initiative.

(4) To conduct a continuous analysis of the scope, effect, and methods of federal, state, and local government operations in Alabama and make those recommendations to the Legislative Council as appropriate.

(5) To prepare, under the direction of the Code Commissioner, a compilation or code of the statutes of Alabama.

(6) To determine, subject to the approval of the Code Commissioner, the content of the code and any supplements thereto and to prepare an annual codification bill to adopt changes to the code enacted at prior sessions of the Legislature.

(b) Requests for assistance under subdivisions (1) and (3) of subsection (a) shall be prepared only for a member of the Legislature or the Lieutenant Governor, or a person authorized by a member of the Legislature or by the Lieutenant Governor. Requests for assistance under subdivision (2) of subsection (a) shall be prepared only for a member of the Legislature, the Lieutenant Governor, or the Governor, or a person authorized by a member of the Legislature, by the Lieutenant Governor, or by the Governor. The Legal Division may respond to other requests for assistance, including, but not limited to, requests from other state governments, as the Director of Legislative Services determines to be in the best interests of the state.

(c) In order that the purposes of this article shall be best served, each department and agency of the State of Alabama government shall furnish to the Legal Division copies of all monthly, quarterly, annual, biennial, quadrennial, and other regular reports which it is required by law to prepare for other agents or officials of the state government and copies of all printed publications that it issues. Each department or agency of the State of Alabama government shall comply with requests for supplementary reports made by the Legal Division and approved by the Legislative Council. Each department and agency of the State of Alabama government shall make its internal records available to the Legal Division upon request.