The Tennessee Legislative Council Committee was created in 1953 and was the only Legislative central staff office until 1967, when the Fiscal Review Committee was created to provide for a legislative entity knowledgeable about the fiscal affairs of the state and to impart that knowledge to the legislative membership through every means, including the preparation and distribution of fiscal notes on legislation. The Legislative Council staff was responsible for bill drafting; printing, distribution and sale of bills, resolutions, amendments and informational reports on bill status; preparation of bill summaries; preparation of floor calendars; staffing committees; maintaining a rudimentary computer bill tracking system; and providing a typing pool.The Tennessee Legislative Council was abolished in 1977. It was replaced by the Joint Legislative Services Committee, which oversees several non-partisan central staff agencies; these included the Office of Legal Services for the General Assembly, which became the bill drafting and committee staffing agency, and also absorbed the duties of the Tennessee Code Commission staff; the Office of Legislative Administration, whose staff was detached from the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury to provide administrative, budgetary and personnel support; and the Office of Legislative Services, which provided for the update of the computer bill tracking system, the printing, distribution and sale of copies of bills, resolutions, amendments, and informational reports on bill status, and the preparation of floor calendars.
The Office of Management Information Services (MIS) was created 1986-87. In the summer of 1994 Management Information Services began the process of replacing the Wang VS system utilized by the legislative branch with a Local Area Network (LAN) PC system, whose design and flexibility would seem to suggest new staff organization to best make use of the new technology.The duties of the Office of Legislative Services were folded into MIS, which became the Office of Legislative Information Services in 1996. And later the Office of Legislative Informations Systems in 2010. The Office of Legislative Budget Analysis was created in 1999 to conduct detailed analyses of the state's budget and to assist leadership, committees and members with budget analysis. The Joint Senate House Government Operations Committee has responsibility for review of administrative rules and regulations. Staff offices exist for Minority Affairs; the Legislative Internship Program and the Facilities Management Office, both of which are attached to Legislative Administration. The Council on Pensions and Insurance, created in 1971, is staffed by personnel from the Division of Retirement of the State Treasurer's Office.