§ 25. Duties of the commission. The commission shall:
1. Draft or aid in drafting or examine legislative bills and resolutions and amendments thereto, upon request of a member or committee of either house of the legislature;
2. Advise as to the constitutionality, consistency or effect of proposed legislation upon request of a member or committee of either house of the legislature;
3. Make researches and examinations as to any subject of proposed legislation upon request of either house or of a committee of either house of the legislature;
4. Expend monies made available to the commission by appropriation for the employment of personnel, including temporary services, and for expenses of maintenance and operation, including labor, materials, office supplies, communication equipment, furniture, alterations, repairs, furnishings, purchase of books, development and operation of systems in support of the legislature and traveling expenses, and for services and expenses related to the legislative printing for the legislature contract pursuant to section four of the New York State printing and public documents law, including with respect to such contract the printing of bills, additional copies of bills, the printing and binding of session laws and the classification of appropriations (black book), the senate and assembly journals and certain other miscellaneous documents and messages set forth in such section four; and for services and expenses incurred in the installation, rental, development, maintenance and operation of centralized data processing systems, programs and equipment for the creation of a data bank containing the official statutes of the state and miscellaneous information, including, but not limited to, the text of the rules and regulations of state agencies as filed with the secretary of state for use in the preparation and composition of bills; preparation and composition of calendars, journals, session laws and miscellaneous documents; the operation of a bill status retrieval system for the senate and assembly; and the development of a statutory and other miscellaneous information retrieval system for the legislature and other entities; and for services and expenses related to the contract for the printing, publication and distribution of the State of New York Legislative Digest pursuant to section five of the New York state printing and public documents law. Such funds shall be expended upon approval of the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly or their respective designees, notwithstanding and unrestricted by the provisions of any general or special law. All products purchased shall be recycled products, which meet contract specifications, unless the only available product does not contain recycled content, and provided that the cost of the recycled product does not exceed a cost premium of ten percent above the cost of a comparable product that is not a recycled product or, if at least fifty percent of the secondary materials utilized in the manufacture of that product are generated from the waste stream in New York state, the cost of the recycled product does not exceed a cost premium of fifteen percent above the cost of a comparable product that is not a recycled product. For the purpose of this section and until July first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, "recycled product" shall mean any product which has been manufactured from secondary materials, as defined in subdivision one of section two hundred sixty-one of the economic development law, and meets secondary material content requirements adopted by the office of general services under subdivision one of section one hundred seventy-seven of the state finance law for products available to the senate under state contract or, if no such contract for such product is available, any product which meets the secondary material content requirements adopted by the secretary of the senate, or such other officers or employees of the senate as the temporary president of the senate shall designate, and the clerk of the assembly, or such other officers or employees as the speaker of the assembly shall designate, respectively, with respect to a specific commodity procurement by such entity. On and after July first, nineteen hundred ninety-six, "recycled product" shall mean, for the purposes of this section, any product which has been manufactured from secondary materials, as defined in subdivision one of section two hundred sixty-one of the economic development law, and which meets the requirements of subdivision two of section 27-0717 of the environmental conservation law and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto. Whenever purchasing or causing the purchase of printing on recycled paper pursuant to this section, the secretary of the senate, or such other officers or employees of the senate as the temporary president of the senate shall designate, and the clerk of the assembly, or such other officers or employees as the speaker of the assembly shall designate, respectively, shall require the printed material to contain the official state recycling emblem established pursuant to subdivision two of section 27-0717 of the environmental conservation law and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto if such paper has been approved by the department of environmental conservation as satisfying the requirements of such statute and regulations, or, if such paper has not been so approved, require the printed material to include a printed statement which indicates the percentages of pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled material content of such paper.
