When
a bill or resolution is first introduced in the House of Representatives
or the Senate, it is sent to a committee that deals with its particular
issue. At committee meetings, elected members delegated by the House
or Senate consider and make recommendations considering dispositions
of bills, resolutions, and other matters referred to them. Committees
are appointed by the Speaker of the House or the Senate Majority
Leader and are organized according to subject matter. There are 24 permanent House committees and 21 permanent Senate committees. These "standing" committees contain from five to thirty members and are appointed for two-year periods. The Appropriations Committees are subdivided in subcommittees where bills with monetary implications are assigned for discussion, analysis and revision before being presented to the full committee for action. When a bill is referred to a standing committee, the members of that committee have a choice in the actions they may take on any bill: report a bill with a favorable recommendation, or without recommendation; report a bill with amendments, with or without recommendation; report a substitute bill in place of the original bill; report a bill and recommend that it be referred to another committee; or take no action on a bill (committees are not required to "report out" a bill). Although one of the chief functions of a committee is to "screen out" undesirable bills, arbitrary refusal of a committee to report out a bill can be remedied by a motion to "discharge the committee from further consideration of the bill." If the motion is approved by a majority of members, the bill is placed on the order of Second Reading in the House or General Orders in the Senate. As a rule, all standing committee meetings are open to the public. Exceptions are extremely rare. Most committee business is conducted during the meeting and most committee action requires the approval of a majority of those appointed and serving on the committee. If there are a sufficient number of affirmative votes, the bill is reported out. There are several other types of committees set up by the legislature to achieve certain goals. Special committees may be created by a House or Senate Resolution and appointed by the Speaker and/or Senate Majority Leader. These committees are generally appointed to serve during a specified time period. The number of members of these committees will vary according to the specifications of the Resolution. For the most part, these committees are used to study and investigate topics of special interest, such as railroads, aging, urban mass transportation, nursing home issues, etc. Another type of committee is the joint committee. Several of these are established by statute. These committees, like standing committees, are appointed for two-year periods, but membership consists of both Representatives and Senators. Members are usually given at least one day's notice of all committee meetings. |
The
following guidelines are suggested to assist citizens in making their
testimony influential and effective: |
If
a bill of interest to you has been introduced, find out from the Clerk
of the House, the Secretary of the Senate or an interested organization
which committee the bill was referred to. You may then write a brief
letter to the Committee Clerk for
that committee asking to be notified when the bill is put on
the committee agenda for discussion or is scheduled for a public
hearing. You may also write to the Committee Chair requesting
that the bill be put on the agenda or scheduled for a hearing.
Sometimes only the volume of letters on a particular bill will
assure that it receives a committee hearing, since not all bills
are "automatically" considered.
Many die without ever having been considered by a committee.
If you find out about a bill after it has passed in the House
or Senate, you may still have the opportunity to be heard before
the committee in the other Chamber to which the bill has been
referred. It is important to note that attention given to bills in regular committee meetings may not be as extensive as in a public hearing because of time limitations. A committee may be regularly scheduled to meet for an hour, and may need to consider three or four bills during that timeframe. A public hearing on the other hand, may hear testimony on a single issue for more than three hours. However, only major pieces of legislation or bills in which there is widespread interest will normally be scheduled for public hearings. When a bill is scheduled on the committee's agenda for consideration, and if you have an active interest in the legislation and feel there are contributions you can make to the committee's process, you may decide to testify at either a meeting or a hearing. The purpose of testimony given should be informational so that committee members can vote on the bill with as full an understanding as possible of all sides of the issue it addresses, and the consequences of its passage. In a meeting, the bill's sponsor, along with experts on the issue and informed members of the public, will be heard. If the measure is controversial or if additional information is needed before a decision can be reached by the committee's members, most committees will hold the bill over to a future meeting date or even a public hearing. |
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