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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Legislative Benefits - "Insulted" legislators; disrespected citizens

Updating these earlier ILB entries on SB 165, dated Jan. 17th and Jan. 20th, Mary Beth Schneider reports today in a front-page story in the Indianapolis Star headlined "Insulted, senators kill legislator-to-lobbyist bill":

State Sen. Patricia Miller started this legislative session with hopes of killing any perception that legislators are using their public jobs to win more lucrative positions as lobbyists.

The Indianapolis Republican's fellow lawmakers, however, were so offended by that perception that they killed her bill.

Senate Bill 165, which died after a contentious Senate hearing this month without getting a vote, would have required legislators to wait one year after leaving office before lobbying the Indiana General Assembly. * * *

Sen. Marvin Riegsecker, the Goshen Republican who controlled the bill's fate as chairman of the Senate Public Policy Committee, said * * * "I don't think the bill would have passed anyway."
It has elsewhere.

Twenty-six states have enacted one- or two-year cooling-off periods for lawmakers.

What's more, in 2005, Gov. Mitch Daniels sought and won passage of a law instituting a similar policy in his administration, barring his aides from lobbying their former colleagues for a year after taking private-sector jobs. * * *

In Indiana, more than 30 former lawmakers have registered as lobbyists, including four former speakers of the House.

Last summer, only a few months after starting new two-year terms in the legislature, two state representatives, Republican Matt Whetstone of Brownsburg and Democrat Bob Kuzman of Crown Point, resigned from office to become lobbyists.

It was those growing numbers that led Miller, R-Indianapolis, to file SB 165 this year, even though similar bills have failed in the past.

"There seem to be more and more legislators being hired away from the General Assembly to come back and lobby," Miller said. "I think we need to be sure that there's no appearance of impropriety" * * *

"To be honest, it almost seemed to me that they wanted to be offended so that they would have an excuse not to deal with the problem," said Patricia Wittberg, a sociology professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and a Catholic nun, who came to testify.

Wittberg said that throughout her 18 years of teaching, when she talks to her students about legislators representing them "in a fair and just way, and not influenced by special interests, the students laugh. They laugh."

It was those words that Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, found among the most offensive. "The testimony was so nasty and mean and personal that the committee members were furious," she said. "It was a very unpleasant confrontation. That's not how you get legislation passed around here."

Sandra Mowell, a member of the League of Women Voters who also testified, said it was lawmakers who were "rather nasty."

"I thought they just reacted rather violently without a whole lot of provocation toward us," she said. "People in elective office may say they want people to participate in this process, but I went away with the definite opinion that that's just talk."

Disrespected citizens. Today's Star also publishes a powerful "My View" piece from Bruce K. Hetrick, relating the way a "public hearing" scheduled last week for a bill on smoke-free workplaces, HB 1057, was conducted. Some quotes:
But last week I experienced first hand the kind of government behavior that breeds cynicism, discourages public participation and leaves citizens outraged and at risk.

The occasion was a public hearing on statewide smoke-free workplace legislation. The bill in question emerged from the Indiana Health Finance Commission. But in one of those make-it-go-away maneuvers, it was assigned not to author Charlie Brown's Health Committee, but to the House Public Policy Committee.

Remarkably, the committee chairman scheduled the bill for a hearing.

On the appointed day, supporters and opponents from all over the state gathered to testify. The room was packed and sweltering.

I sat with a scientist who drove up from Bloomington to share results of a study on secondhand smoke and heart disease.

I talked with a Fort Wayne pediatrician who sacrificed a day of patient care so she could explain the impact of secondhand smoke on children.

I talked with a member of a statewide faith group who came to protect his flock.

The 9 a.m. meeting began late. As we sat and waited, committee members discussed lots of other bills.

Then they launched into a convoluted conversation about hands-free cell-phone legislation.

Finally, around 10:20, the chairman announced the bill we'd all come to address. He said there were many interested people in the room and he wanted to hear from supporters and opponents alike -- this was important legislation, after all.

Reporters readied notebooks. TV cameras zoomed in. Rep. Brown began a brief explanation of the legislation.

But someone wanted to talk some more about cell phones. So that went round and round again -- Rep. Brown waiting patiently at the podium.

Finally, at 10:28 or so, the chairman called my name -- the very first witness to support smoke-free workplaces.

I took the podium. I started to explain how my wife died of cancer. How she never smoked. How her doctors blamed secondhand smoke.

Then the chairman cut me off.

He explained to the scientists, the physicians, the lobbyists, the ministers and all the rest of us who'd come to testify that it was 10:30. He said they were out of time for this year. He said he was sorry.
With that, potentially life-saving legislation died a sudden death.

Rep. Brown shouted out that he would refile the bill next year. * * *

Dear legislators, if you want to earn the citizens' respect, start by respecting the citizens.

Don't tease us with dead-end committee assignments.

Don't manipulate agendas and run out the clock on a public hearing.

Don't ask us to bare our souls if you don't intend to listen.

And please, if you're not going to save lives through healthy public policy, then don't waste the time of doctors, scientists and other health professionals who could better spend their hours trying to address the consequences.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 27, 2008 08:46 AM
Posted to Legislative Benefits