Thursday, February 25, 2021

"The Senate now decides how to handle the House’s changes"

 

"HOUSE LAWMAKERS spent over an hour locked in a tense debate Wednesday afternoon on an unsuccessful transparency amendment to the Legislature’s 2021-2022 joint rules before ultimately adopting a rules package to govern interactions between the two branches that strips a few elements of the Senate’s proposed reforms.

The House approved a rules package on a 128-31 vote that would keep a notice requirement for committee hearings at 72 hours, rather than the one week proposed by the Senate; make public only the names of committee members who vote against favorably reporting a bill, instead of providing a complete accounting of how all members vote, as the Senate version would; and remove Senate language which would have mandated that committees share copies of public testimony when asked by members of the public.

Most of the debate Wednesday centered on an amendment  that would have made details of all committee votes public, mandated a one-week notice for committee hearings, and made public testimony on bills available to the public upon request. The House rejected the amendment on a 36-122 vote with nearly all Republicans and eight Democrats voting in favor."
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