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Thursday, March 24, 2005

Ind. Law - Bringing daylight savings time back to life

An AP story today by Mike Smith appears today in the Evansville Courier& Press with the headline "Republicans look to revive daylight-saving plan: Measure might be added to tobacco bill." Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS -- Daylight-saving time and the shipment of tobacco products might not seem to have much in common. But they might end up in the same legislation if a state lawmaker has his way. * * *

Rep. Robert Alderman, chairman of the House Public Policy Committee, said he hopes to amend the proposal into a bill dealing with sales of tobacco products during a meeting of his panel today.

The Senate bill would prohibit the shipments of tobacco products other than cigars to an Indiana resident who is not a tobacco distributor. He said that, since daylight-saving time and the tobacco provisions both deal with state administration, they could be in the same bill. * * *

Provisions in bills that are killed during the legislative process can sometimes be revived by amending legislation that remains alive.

But House and Senate rules require amendments to be relevant to the original legislation. The GOP-controlled Senate is very strict in following such rules, which dooms many attempts to revive legislation.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, a strong proponent of statewide daylight-saving time, had acknowledged that such rules would make it difficult to find a new home for the proposal. Republican leaders in the House and Senate have said the same, and Senate President Pro-Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, is especially adamant that amendments be relevant to an original bill.

Alderman said he believes there would be enough votes on his committee to amend the bill, but he acknowledged that the move might not pass muster with Garton's interpretations of amendment rules. If it does not, the daylight-time provisions could be doomed even if they are added to the tobacco bill and it passes the House.

Talk about the "straight face" test ...

Meanwhile, Mary Beth Schneider of the Indianapolis Star has a more recent report that says the plan "to resuscitate the time-switch bill" by placing it in "Senate Bill 379, [which] prohibits the shipping of tobacco products, other than cigars, to anyone who isn't a tobacco distributor", is no longer alive:

That plan fell apart late Wednesday after Senate President Pro Tempore Robert D. Garton, R-Columbus, said the issues were too dissimilar to meet constitutional requirements that bills be germane.

"Oh no," Garton said. "I think I could give this to a fourth-grader studying Indiana government and they'd say there's no relationship."

Garton said he's willing to try to help find a home for the bill and said a better route would be to completely strip out another bill's contents to replace them with the daylight-saving time provisions.

That, Torr said, is now Plan B. He's identified two or three possibilities and expects to resurrect the time issue in one of those bills next week at a meeting of the House Public Policy and Veterans Affairs Committee.

The chairman of that committee, Rep. Robert Alderman, R-Fort Wayne, said he's eager to help save the effort to have Indiana join the 47 other states that observe daylight-saving time. "You've got to remember," said Alderman, a former policeman, "I know CPR."

It looks like Senator Garton has provided a roadmap of what will be acceptable in the Senate.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 24, 2005 09:43 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law