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Thursday, January 06, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - "16 Weeks of this to go?" Some ILB observations

Mary Beth Schneider and Heather Gillers of the Indianapolis Star had the coverage with the best headline re the rocky start to this year's House of Representatives. Here is the part that caught my eye:

[Democrats] invoked a seldom-if-ever-used rule that requires the titles and authors of all bills to be read aloud in the House -- a "first reading" -- clearing the way for committee assignment. That, Democrats argued, protected their right to then object to a bill and force a vote to kill it from the start.

Bosma said later that Republicans may want to revise that rule, saying it is wrong to force legislators to vote on a bill most had not seen, much less read.

Leslie Stedman Weidenbener reported on the incident in the Louisville Courier Journal:
And within minutes of the opening Pledge of Allegiance, those new members — and some veterans — got an unexpected lesson on House rules.

Democrats challenged House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, to “follow the Indiana Constitution and House rules” by offering bills on first reading individually — instead of in mass on lists. The latter has been the House tradition for decades under both Republican and Democratic leaders, including former Democratic Speaker Pat Bauer last year.

But this session, state Rep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, said the rules should be enforced so that minority members could take advantage of a second rule, one that allows members to object to the introduction of individual bills. * * *

Meanwhile in the Senate, the first day started and ended quickly, lengthened only by the introduction of individual bills, which is that chamber’s tradition.

Jon Seidel reported in the Gary Post Tribune:
House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, and Rep. Terri Austin, D-Anderson, tried to stop them dead in their tracks. Austin asked for the title, number, author and committee of each bill to be read on first reading, citing an official House rule.

Veteran lawmakers say both parties have ignored that rule for decades, but Austin said that would give members a chance to object to a bill on first reading. After much parliamentary wrangling, and a vote on one of the bills, both were introduced and assigned to the labor committee.

"You know, we spent more time on this than if we'd actually read the bill lists," Austin said.

Bosma didn't list the two targeted bills among his legislative priorities Wednesday, but he did say bills should get a chance to be heard in committee, where members of the public can hear details and give feedback.

He said it wasn't "totally absurd" for Democrats to read the House rules the way they did. He wouldn't say whether the long-ignored rule would be changed.

"We'll see what tomorrow's bill-list hand-down brings," Bosma said.

ILB observations. The Indiana Constitution requires that bills be "read" three times.

Here, specifically, is what the Indiana Constitution requires:

Art. 4, Sec. 18. Every bill shall be read, by title, on three several days, in each House; unless, in case of emergency, two-thirds of the House where such bill may be pending shall, by a vote of yeas and nays, deem it expedient to dispense with this rule; but the reading of a bill, by title, on its final passage, shall, in no case, be dispensed with; and the vote on the passage of every bill or joint resolution shall be taken by yeas and nays.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984)
Here is Indiana Senate Rule 50:
50. (a) Bills and joint resolutions will be introduced after assignment to a committee.
(b) Bills and resolutions are introduced when read for the first time.
(c) The first reading of a bill shall be for information, including the assignment to a committee by the President Pro Tempore.
Here is an example of the Senate Reading Clerk "reading" SB 9 for the first time: "Senate Bill 9, Senator Zakas, Rules & Legislative Procedure." That is a quote from the online video of yesterday's Senate session.

Here is the Indiana House Rule 115:

115. Introduction and First Reading. The reading of each bill by number, title and author and committee reference shall be the introduction and first reading. The first reading of a bill is for information.

Oddly, in this new era of transparency, the House video for yesterday is not currently available online. However I was able to view the video from a year ago, Jan. 5, 2010, and heard then-Speaker Bauer announce: "Chair hands down bill list #2." Period, no indication of what is on the bill list. So that is the difference: unlike in the Senate, bills in the House on first reading are not read number by number, although the rule does seem to require it.

Whether or not this House practice complies with the Constitution is questionable. However, our Supreme Court has ruled many times that the General Assembly is the judge of its internal procedures, meaning that a law cannot be successfully challenged on the basis of some procedural deficiency that occurred during its passage through the General Assembly.

What surprised me, however, was that, unlike the Senate, the House has a second rule, 116:

116. Rejection or Assignment to Committee. If a member objects to a bill on first reading the question shall be: “Shall the bill be rejected?” If the question to reject is defeated, the bill shall be referred to a committee.
So this was the point of the House Democrats maneuvers yesterday! Without at least a cursory "reading," as is required by Rule 115, there is no opportunity for exercising an objection under Rule 116.

And this Star quote now makes more sense to me: "Bosma said later that Republicans may want to revise that rule, saying it is wrong to force legislators to vote on a bill most had not seen, much less read."

He seems to be talking about the second rule, 116, rather than about 115, which is intended to address the constitutional requirement.

[More at 4:00 pm] These quotes from this story from Niki Kelly of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette are useful:

Democrats said they just wanted to use existing House rules to go on record early against so-called right-to-work legislation.

The legislation would prevent employees from being forced to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment.

They specifically wanted to have the number, title, author and committee of each bill filed so far read into the record instead of adopting a bill list en masse. Doing this would then allow them to object to individual bills on first reading – the ultimate objective behind the maneuver.

“I want a chance to say, ‘Let’s not waste our time,’ ” said Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, about the right-to-work bill.

The practice of reading individual bill information has not been used in the past by former Democratic Speaker Patrick Bauer, of South Bend, but the Senate regularly follows that rule. The Senate did so Wednesday with no argument and was done with work well before the House.

Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, said he was disappointed in Democrats and noted that during the time House members were fighting about the rule “not one Hoosier is better off. Not one job has been created. Not one step toward a balanced budget.”

Bosma said it might be necessary to change the rules in the future rather than force members to vote on bills on first reading – which is often before legislators have even seen them.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 6, 2011 03:37 PM
Posted to Indiana Government