H.R. 3 House Rules Resolution - Abandoning Legislation: transcript

Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is something that we worked on, I worked on last year at the request of Megan Allen, our house chief clerk. We, um, did okay getting, it sort of started, but there were a lot of concerns. And so we ended up taking it back to legislative process committee. Um, and, uh, one thing that became clear is that this has to be a house rule. It can't be a joint rule because the Senate does not share our views on this type of thing. So, uh, lemme just explain what the, what the issue is and what the solution is that that, that Megan and I had worked out. So the problem is we have a process for abandoning a a bill file before it's numbered. But once it's numbered the pro, there is a process technically, but it's cumbersome. So in order to abandon a bill file that has been numbered, it has to be in the house, not, not in a committee, not in rules committee. It has to be somewhere. It has to be in front of the whole body. And then you have to make a motion to strike the enacting clause, which creates a process that is cumbersome on the clerks to administer. 'cause you have to first of all, figure out where it is, get it there, get it back to the, the body. Then you have to take floor time to explain what you're doing, get rid of it. Now, some may have said in the process of this is like, well, why does it matter? Because you can just ignore it and it will go away. But it creates workload. So rules committee has bills and they're constantly asking, Hey, are, are you gonna move? Or I don't know what are gonna do with it? The public doesn't know. Um, and last year we had a bill where there was a lot of public outcry because people really concerned that even though the sponsor said, I'm not gonna move forward, they still could. And so it resolves that uncertainty. Um, and working with Megan, the solution that we came up with was to have this dispute administrative action that you would formally request to the chief clerk that this numbered bill be abandoned. And then the chief clerk will take the necessary steps. If it is in the possession of a house, anywhere in the house, it will be returned to the clerk. If it's in the possession of the Senate, the chief clerk will request that the Senate return it. Now, we can't make them return it, but we would request that the Senate return it. I, I think politically, if the Senate refused to return a bill at the request of the house, there might be other implications. I don't know. I've never been in leadership. I dunno how that works. But typically when we request it, they return it to us and then the chief clerk would mark the bill as abandoned. That would be the current status. And it would be filed just like at the end of the session where all of the bills that don't get considered, there is a physical place where all of these physical bills are taken. So a little box somewhere, I guess, or a file drawer somewhere. And all of the bills are put in that file and then they cannot be considered for the rest of that session. They are, that's, that's how it would work. And so this would be a house rule only. This would be how it happens in the house. Uh, the Senate can do whatever they wanna do or not do, whatever they don't wanna do. But it would allow a house member to formally abandon a numbered bill in one simple process that doesn't take, um, any floor time, doesn't take any committee time and takes very little administrative time on top of that. So that's what we came up with and I'm here to get your feedback and hopefully your support.

Or did you think through that? Yeah, We thought through that and, and it, the, the challenge is there's, there's two, there's two ways this could go down. So one is it's a hostile takeover. So now I've got a bill and I've, it's got to a point where I just don't want to deal with it anymore because whatever I just, like, I really actually think it's a bad idea to proceed. Um, and then allowing someone to take your efforts and just put their name on it, continue forward, seems to be counter to our process that typically in the house, the, the bill belongs to the sponsor, it doesn't belong to anybody else. So the hostile version kind of creates its own problem. Um, but the other problem is that if you, um, once it's, once it's abandoned, it is literally filed. And so it creates a huge administrative step for staff and everybody else to revive it, pull it from the file, change the sponsor, get all the information. So it just didn't seem to be that the juice is worth the squeeze. Um, if somebody really felt that strongly about it, they could easily make a motion on the house floor to open a bill file. Staff could easily populate that bill with language that's already been drafted and whatever process it had been through at that point. I mean, if it's, if it was a committee hearing, you could make a motion on the house floor to under suspension the rules, skip this committee hearing and put it straight on the house board so it could be done. And it's not that cumbersome. It's probably a better way because then it's clean, it's your bill, your name's on it and has been on it the whole time. So I looked at that, uh, just it created a administrative wrinkle that I just didn't feel like the juice was worth the squeeze at this point. Okay,

Thanks. I like to make a motion that we favorably recommend house rule's Resolution three.

Yes. So I have seen over the years, sometimes, um, legislators, um, think of an idea and they file a bill and, and the, the response that they give for that bill file is unexpected for them. Um, and they hear from a ton of public, they decide the bill's not moving forward. But the rest of the session, everybody that's up here is getting emails about it doesn't matter how many times the sponsor says, I'm not running it, I'm not running it. There's no way for us to actually kill the bill. I mean, we could strike the enacting clause. That is the, the way. And then even that's so wonky that I don't know that the public can understand that that's killed the bill. And so I like, um, being able to, um, let a legislator abandon a bill in a public way so the public can know that Bill really is dead for the session. And now another rep could open it. But always that is a possibility. So I like it.

Thank you. Just as this was a pro process that was brought to me by our former chief clerk, and, um, even though she's not the chief clerk anymore, I checked with her on the way out and she said, just make it better for the next guy. So just please continue with that and hopefully can make it happen.

Representative Thurston. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to reserve the right to make a motion.

Yeah. So I have an amendment that I wanna propose, but I want to give you some background before I propose the amendment.

So, uh, we have a simple process for abandoning bills before they are numbered. But once a bill gets numbered, it gets really complicated and difficult to do. Um, in fact, it's nearly impossible to actually abandon a bill. You can strike the enacting clause, but that doesn't ever tell the public what's actually happening with that bill. So, um, in the process, there is a fundamental question about can we require a house bill that's already in the Senate to take action on a house bill? The answer is we cannot. The Senate is an independent body. So the amendment, oh, this time I'd like to move Amendment one in my name.

I have that here.

I would. So this amendment, what it clarifies is that we are not going, if frankly, uh, colleagues, if you have a bill that you're going to abandon, it's already been numbered. It's almost surely still here in the house. 99% of the time it will be in a committee or it'll be on the board. It'll be in rules, it'll be here in the house. But in the rare circumstance that it happens to be in the Senate, this amendment simply says it's in the Senate. If it ever comes back, you can abandon it, but if it stays in the Senate, you can't abandon it while in the Senate. So that's what the Amendment does. It's a, I think it's a real important amendment to keep peace with our colleagues across the way.

I will waive the on the amendment.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. So the impact of this bill, now that it's been amended, is that if you have a bill that you just don't want to get any more emails or texts, you want to signal to our colleagues and to the public that you're done, you're waving the white flag. This, this bill's not moving forward. It creates a real simple process for that to happen. And the process is that you notify the chief clerk, I wish to abandon this bill. Once the chief clerk has that bill in his possession, the bill is noted as abandoned and the speaker announces it to the body. It doesn't take any floor time, it doesn't, it re remove, uh, removes all of the need for resources to be expended on taking that extra step. And so it allows us to simply signal to our colleagues and the public that this bill is in fact not going to move forward this session. And it gives us a, a real simple way of making that process happen. With that, I would encourage your support.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this bill having been someone who's had a bill that has gone out there. And I decided not to move forward with it and tried to communicate that as much as I possibly could to everyone. And still seeing a flurry of information and misinformation online of people saying, oh, this is just a deploy. There's a secret plan to be able to move this, this, uh, bill through. And not being able to explain it to people because on our system it just says it's sitting in the committee, it's waiting. Could be heard at any time. There wasn't a good process to move this through. I, uh, I applaud the good sponsor and his ingenuity and finding a solution here that makes it very clean, that doesn't take up any floor time. That allows us to make it clear to the public that these bills are abandoned, they're done with. And if you think back to the original rule, I know that we have a rule that says that we could come in here and make a motion on the floor, assuming that we the floor actually had it here, uh, and in and strike the enacting clause. Even then, I don't think that would send the right message to the public. I don't think they understand that process. And if you think back, back in the day where the public would go down to the bill room and get a copy of it and then see the, the, the striking of the enactment clause. I think that sent a message in today's world of where everyone can see the bill online. That just isn't practical anymore. I think this is the right solution and I urge your support.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Where the sponsor yield two question Representative Thurston, will you yield?

Yes. Yes. Representative Peck.

Thank you. This seems like a good idea. I'm just wondering if this is going to be one of those things where the sponsor of the bill for sure is choosing exactly when that happens. I, is it all in their court or does it, could it ever get chosen for them?

Thank you Mr. Speaker. This is completely under the sponsor's control. The sponsor is the one who decides when to notify the chief clerk. And the chief clerk then follows through the process to make it happen.

Yeah, thank you. Just briefly, colleagues, this was a, a, a concept that was brought to me by our prior chief clerk. Um, apparently the number of bills that were out there in uncertain circumstances causes workload caused her workload. And she said, could you help me figure out a way to get to cut down on the number of active bills so that we just have fewer things to keep track of? And this was the solution that we came up, came up with. And I encourage your support. Thank you.