House Democrats Call for Rules Reform

Only recently has the general public been privy to the subjective and unnecessarily restrictive parliamentary process that impedes or allows the passage of legislation. Legislators working within the confines of House Rules for years have fought and debated against arbitrary rules that cripple opportunity for discussion of policies important to the state. 

This morning Democratic House Leaders submitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives fifteen recommendations to ensure transparency, accountability and equity in House Rules.

 “The House Rules in place has allowed procedural maneuvers to preemptively deny a fair hearing of legislation and at the same time has empowered a few legislators to make backroom deals benefitting special interests”, said Democratic Leader Scott M. Inman, D-Del City. “Our recommendations revolve around these concerns, and I hope to see them implemented in the coming session.”

Leader Inman and Democratic Floor Leader Chuck Hoskin received input from Members of the Caucus and drafted a letter calling for adoption of much-needed reform.

One of the top priorities of the Democratic Caucus is ensuring that conference committee reports be heard in their committee of origin, that these committee meetings be public, and that they be scheduled at least twenty-four hours in advance to allow attendance by interested parties.

Currently when the Senate and the House are unable to agree on provisions of a certain bill, these bills are assigned to a conference committee in which the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House assign a handful of legislators to approve and sign off on revisions to the bill. In actuality, no committee meetings are held, as these conference committee reports require only signatures of legislators to be considered “out” of committee, and often these reports are not read due to time constraints and pressure by authors to approve the report as is.

“The conference committee report process is inherently flawed, and last session resulted in the passage of a bill creating a transition coordinator for the medical examiner’s office, in which later no one claimed to have added this language or even been aware of this inclusion”, said Floor Leader Hoskin, D-Vinita. “We are asking for more accountability in the procedure and more transparency to avoid this kind of scenario.”

The Democratic Caucus is also calling for the repeal of a House Rule which gives chairs of committees unprecedented discretionary powers by prohibiting any discussion or introduction of a bill on the House Floor if it was not granted a hearing in a House committee.

“Right now, one person, the chair of a committee, can refuse a hearing on a particular bill, and with our House Rules as is, this decision cripples the right of any legislator to bring this topic up in the form of an amendment on the House floor for two years”, said Leader Inman. “Essentially, one person out of 101 legislators has way too much power and control over what policies can be heard on the House floor, and this hurts not only the democratic process but our citizens who look to us to deliberate on issues affecting our state.”

Another recommendation addresses the practice of legislators to add language to bills that are unrelated or not germane to the original bill. Suggestions include a stipulation that if germaneness is challenged on a bill in committee, it can also be challenged for germaneness on the House Floor.

“Again, it goes back to the large degree of discretionary power given to the chairs of committees, who rule on germaneness”, said Floor Leader Hoskin. “Any attempts to skirt the most basic requirement of germaneness, which means you can’t add language regarding health insurance to a bill dealing with elementary school curriculum, is inappropriate and should be challenged by the full body of the House.”

Another top priority of Democratic Leaders is to require that all bills be added to the House floor calendar at least twenty-fours hours in advance of being allowed a hearing.

“What we have here is too many bills being thrown on the floor calendar with little to no time for legislators to read or review the latest version of the bill”, said Leader Inman. “On deadline weeks, and the last day of session, bills are added to the calendar and immediately brought up on the House floor, and we’re not given the time to make well-informed decisions on measures before being asked to vote on them.

“In the days when the Republicans were in the Minority they vocally opposed this practice, but in the six years that they’ve controlled the House of Representatives they have yet to prohibit it. In fact, it could be argued that they have at times abused it, as evident in the actions that occurred last session regarding the medical examiner’s office.

“It makes no sense to allow this to continue, and I’m certain the people of Oklahoma expect their legislative body to be less careless in actions impacting their lives and livelihoods.”

Among other recommendations is a requirement to post all House of Representatives expenses on the House website and to end the practice of nullifying amendments attached to House bills awaiting a hearing on the floor by submitting a floor substitute.

“We have a way to achieve more transparency and accountability in our legislative work; I truly hope that the political will is there”, said Leader Inman.

Advertisement