2A.1  Legislative services agency created — services — legislative privileges — nonpartisanship and nonadvocacy.
  1.  A legislative services agency is created as a nonpartisan, central legislative staff agency under the direction and control of the legislative council. The agency shall cooperate with and serve all members of the general assembly, the legislative council, and committees of the general assembly.
  2.  The legislative services agency shall provide the following services:
  a.  Legal and fiscal analysis, including legal drafting services, fiscal analysis of legislation, and state expenditure, revenue, and budget review.
  b.  State government oversight and performance evaluation.
  c.  Staffing of standing committees, revenue and budget committees, statutory committees, and interim study committees, and any subcommittees of such committees, including the provision of legal and fiscal analysis to committees and subcommittees.
  d.  Publication of the official legal publications of the state, including but not limited to the Iowa Acts, Iowa Code, Iowa administrative bulletin, Iowa administrative code, and Iowa court rules as provided in chapter 2B. The legislative services agency shall do all of the following:
  (1)  Designate a legal publication described in chapter 2B as an official legal publication. The legislative services agency may also designate a legal publication as an unofficial legal publication. The legislative services agency may use the great seal of the state of Iowa as provided in section 1A.1 or other symbol to identify an official or unofficial legal publication.
  (2)  Provide for citing official legal publications as provided in chapter 2B.
  e.  Operation and maintenance of the legislative computer systems used by the senate, house of representatives, and the central legislative staff agencies.
  f.  Provision of legislative information to the public, provision of library information, management of legislative visitor protocol services, and provision of capitol tour guide services.
  g.  Other functions as assigned to the legislative services agency by the legislative council or the general assembly.
  3.  The legislative services agency shall provide services to the general assembly in such a manner as to preserve the authority of the senate and the house of representatives to determine their own rules of proceedings and to exercise all other powers necessary for a separate branch of the general assembly of a free and independent state, and to protect the legislative privileges of the members and employees of the general assembly. In providing services to the general assembly, the legislative services agency shall adhere to all applicable policies of the general assembly and its constituent bodies relating to public access to legislative information and related confidentiality restrictions.
  4.  The director and all other employees of the legislative services agency shall not participate in partisan political activities and shall not be identified as advocates or opponents of issues subject to legislative debate except as otherwise provided by law or by the legislative council.
2003 Acts, ch 35, §1, 49; 2010 Acts, ch 1031, §27; 2014 Acts, ch 1141, §31
Referred to in §2B.17, 2B.18