Legislative Service Office

November 20, 1930

ACT NO. 3690

AN ACT CREATING THE LEGISLATIVE SERVICE OFFICE, DEFINING ITS POWERS AND DUTIES, APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR SAID OFFICE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. There is hereby created the Legislative Service Office which shall function in accordance with the provisions of this Act. The Chief of the Legislative Service shall be appointed by the presiding officers of both Houses of the Legislature regardless of political affiliation and considering only competency to perform the duties of the office. He shall receive such annual salary as said presiding officers may determine, and his appointment shall be permanent. The Chief of the Legislative Service shall, subject to the approval of the presiding officers of the Houses and Civil Service rules, appoint such assistants, clerks, and other employees as may be necessary for the operation of his office or as may hereafter be authorized by law.

SECTION 2. It shall be the duty of the Legislative Service Office to assist the Philippine Legislature in the consideration and preparation of (a) bills, (b) proposed resolutions, (c) memorandums, (d) investigation work, (e) codifications of laws, (f) compilations of laws, and (g) such other matters as the members or committees of the Legislature may require in the performance of their functions.

SECTION 3. As soon as this Act shall take effect and the Chief of the Legislative Service shall have been appointed and shall have assumed office, he shall submit to the presiding officers of both Houses, for their approval, a plan for the organization of the office, including positions as well as appropriations for contingent expenses, purchase of furniture and equipment, and other necessary expenses: Provided, That said Chief of the Legislative Service may order the payment of research or investigation work done by persons not belonging to his office, at a price not exceeding five pesos the page, in the discretion of said Chief.

SECTION 4. Whenever the public interest requires it, the presiding officers of both Houses of the Legislature may, in their discretion and in the interest of economy compatible with efficient service, place the Legislative Service Office under the direction and authority of the Director of the National Library, subject to such conditions as they may determine, upon agreement with the Department head concerned, approved by the Governor-General, and in this event, the Legislative Reference Division of the National Library and the Law Divisions of the Senate and House of Representatives may, by a like agreement, be totally or partly merged with the Legislative Service Office or completely abolished.

SECTION 5. The sum of fifty thousand pesos is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry out the purposes of this Act: Provided, That if the presiding officers of both Houses of the Legislature should decide to place the Legislative Service Office hereby created temporarily or permanently under the authority of the Director of the National Library, any appropriation made in the Appropriation Act for the Law Divisions of the Houses of the Legislature may be transferred to the National Library and shall thereupon form part of the appropriations of the Legislative Service Office as if it had been originally appropriated for the same by the Legislature.

SECTION 6. All Acts or parts of Acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect on January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-one.

Approved, November 20, 1930.