LIS reports and comma-delimited files

Registering:

To use the report feature you must register as a user of either the Free Tracking Service or Lobbyist-in-a-Box Subscription Service.

Free Service: To register, visit Virginia Interactive's free registration form to sign up.

Lobbyist-in-a-Box: To subscribe, please take a look at the subscription fee agreement.

Creating Reports:

Using the check boxes, select those items you wish to include in your report.

You can use from / thru fields to filter your list. These are optional fields. If you leave both fields blank, the system will assume all bill numbers within the selected category. As an example: if you are viewing a profile which contains many bills but only want to include hb10 through hb20 in your output, enter those bill numbers in their respective fields. If you leave the thru bill number blank, the system will assume you want "thru" the last bill number within the selected category. Another example: If you want just house bills, you can enter from: hb1 thru: hb9999. Be sure to enter bill numbers in the correct format (ie. hb1, sr6, sj245) with no intervening blanks and a maximum of 4 digits.

You can further filter your list by specifying an activity date ("select bills with activity since or on: mm-dd-yy"). Select one of the radio buttons and use the correct format. For example, January 8th, 2004 would be entered as 01-08-04. Leave the field blank (or with its default prompt: mm-dd-yy) to include all qualifying bills. If you choose since, "activity" refers to those bills with history action dates equal to and greater than the date specified. If you choose on, then qualifying bills must have history action dates equal to the date specified.

If you include an email address the report will be prepared offline and emailed to you, usually within 15 minutes (depending on system load). If you omit your address the report will be prepared and displayed online.

Note: Some organizations, including a few state agencies, have chosen to block html attachments in an attempt to prevent viruses. Unfortunately, many of these organizations run software that cannot determine if the attachment contains live code, or if the sender is trusted versus nknown... and therefore, block all html attachments. Contact your email administrator for more information. This is not an issue with commercial ISPs, such as AOL, Earthlink, etc... where you define acceptable attachments, rather than the email administrator.

Please note: response times depend on items selected and number of bills in the list. Online responses are limited to a document size of approximately 80K. Email responses are limited to 150K (approximately 75 pages). You may find it convenient to use bill number ranges (described above) to manage output size. Be aware that text elements (titles, summaries, amendments, votes) require additional resources and therefore take longer to prepare.

Comma-separated values files:

Comma-separated values files csv (also known as comma-delimited files) are suitable for spreadsheet or database input. Select those elements you are interested in as described in the 'reports' section.

Contact Legislative Automated Systems Help Desk (804 786-9631) for additional information.