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Thursday, March 10, 2011
Ind. Gov't. - "Wisconsin Procedural Skulduggery"
Doug Masson's Blog this morning links to this Madison.com story that describes the process used last evening to pass the Wisconsin "budget repair bill." There is even a chart. And video.
Masson's entry points to the part of the Wisconsin story describing the very brief conference committee "meeting," which took place without notice, observing:
It was before my time, but rumor has it that Sen. Garton, long time Republican leader of the Indiana Senate, did a lot to clean up procedural shenanigans that used to be pretty common, one of which was to call last minute conference committees – or last minute room changes for conference committees. Sen. Garton apparently regularized [how] the Senate did its business, and that has done a lot to instill faith in the process. I’m not sure the importance of that can be overstated. Unless people buy into the legislative process, legislation is really just words on a piece of paper backed up by guys with guns.Well, it wasn't before my time, I was Garton's chief majority attorney the first three years he was Senate Pro Temp, 1980-83. And I began observing the General Assembly in the late '60s. Conference committee "meetings" were often a couple guys talking in the aisle, or in the hall, with little formality, let alone notice.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 10, 2011 09:08 AM
Posted to Indiana Government