it oughtta be a law

The new year is underway, and with it comes a new session in the State House. The 161st General Court officially convenes on Wednesday, Jan. 7.

It’s bound to be a fast-paced tumble of activity as items such as a North Country casino, broad-based income tax, and a new state dog come up for debate.

Starting next week, Front Door Politics will bring you weekly updates from Concord. Since the action hasn’t really started yet, we’ll take this opportunity for a pre-session primer on the legislative process—in particular, how someone like you can make a bill become a law.

Even though the next chance to introduce a bill won’t come until fall, the time between now and then can be spent doing research that will make it strong. The more fully you anticipate and provide for all the bill’s implications and consequences, the better its chances. Here’s how it works.

finding a sponsor          

For this, it helps to go to someone on a committee that oversees the public policy sector your idea affects. It also may help to seek an experienced legislator. Freshmen are actually asked to not introduce legislation, but to instead take their first year in office to learn the ropes. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it may be a good rule of thumb for you to consider.

You can go to either the House or the Senate to get a sponsor. Aside from the nuances of strategy, it doesn’t matter which comes first. Either way, that is the legislative body where the bill will be introduced. The only exception to this is that tax bills cannot be introduced by senators.

A bill only needs one sponsor to get introduced. This “prime sponsor” brings your Legislative Service Request, or LSR, to the Office of Legislative Services, whose staff will draft it into proper legalese.

Some special interests with their own attorneys present complete legislation themselves, which is also accepted. But, it’s important to know that anyone can request legislative service without technical legal knowledge.

timing                        

Only a small window of opportunity—about four months each fall—is open for filing LSRs to be drafted into bills.

When that’s done, sponsors then go through a “signing off” process of putting their names of support behind the bills. This period closes just after the session begins in early January.

public hearings             

Each bill is assigned by the president of the Senate or the speaker of the House to a particular standing committee, where every bill receives a public hearing.

There, supporters and opponents—including lobbyists, although they are required to identify themselves as such—speak for or against the bill in question. Amendments to it may even be submitted at this time. 
Once everyone has been heard, the chair officially closes the public hearing, and the committee enters executive session for deliberation.

committee votes            

Although the public is not permitted to engage in the deliberation once the public hearing is closed, executive sessions in which final votes are cast are open.

Based on the majority of committee votes, a report is filed to the clerk of the Senate or House with recommended action (or inaction). Possible reports can be titled “Ought to pass,” “Ought to pass amended,” “Inexpedient to legislate” (a polite way to phrase that a bill has been killed), “Re-refer to Committee,” (only an option in the first year session) or “Refer to interim study” (only an option in the second year session).

on the floor                  

The action then moves to the “floor” of the House or Senate, which means that all members have the chance to debate it. It’s still possible for the House or Senate to kill a bill at this time. If this happens, a motion to “Indefinitely postpone” the bill is adopted.

But, if the bill passes, then it will cross over into the other body for its next round of testing—a process that pretty much mirrors the first half of the bill’s life.
amended bills               

Before a bill can be sent to the Governor, an identical version of it must be passed by both the House and Senate. If changes have been made along the way, the amended bill gets sent back to the House or Senate, wherever it originated. There, three options are possible:

•  Concurrence: The originating body accepts the changed bill as-is.

•  Non-concurrence: The originating body does not agree to the changes and requests a Committee of Conference between the two bodies. The Senate President and House Speaker appoint their own members to work out a compromise.

•  The bill dies: If the originating body does not concur but also does not request a Committee of Conference, the bill “dies.”

rolling right along          

Passed bills are sent to one more committee before being finalized. The Committee on Enrolled Bills checks for any clerical errors or “formal imperfections.” If it finds them, the bill is sent back to both the House and Senate with amendments that only correct those flaws, but which do not change the meaning of the bill.

Reports of the Enrollment Committee are read in each body, and the bill is signed by the Senate president and House speaker before being sent to the Secretary of State, who then transmits the bill to the Governor.
But it’s not over yet! Just in case the House or Senate—whichever body had the bill last—changes its mind, it can recall the bill at any point before the Governor acts on it.

The Governor has five days in which to sign the bill, veto it, or just let it become law without signature.
If the bill is vetoed, it returns to the body that first sponsored it, where the veto can be overturned by a two-thirds majority vote. With this majority, the bill automatically becomes law without the Governor’s signature. Without the majority, the bill dies.

more resources            

This is just a summary, but more complete information—including a glossary of legislative terms, a listing of the 2009 LSRs, and subscription to a weekly blog and podcast of legislative updates—is available at www.frontdoorpolitics.com.