State Legislature Use of Information Technology in Oversight

摘要

State legislatures have been implementing automated data processing (ADP) systems at a rapid rate, although there are a few holdouts, especially among the smaller states. Most of the new equipment has been used to modernize traditional legislative functions--bill drafting, statutory retrieval, printing of journals, and vote recording. Attention is now shifting to the utilization of ADP for more substantive purposes such as policy making and oversight. The report reviews some of the progress made by the states in the application of information technology to the oversight function. Oversight refers generally to efforts by the legislature to influence or control the activity of the executive branch.