Tuesday, February 06, 2007
First "leak" of the legislative session: a House committee hides an amendment from the public
Last legislative session we saw about a dozen committee hearings, all in the House, where a proposed amendment, which the chair would later ask the committee to vote on and pass, was not available to the majority of the public until after the vote was taken.
I received a tip that it's happening again. A House committee has put a note on their hearing notice on the Web that an amendment is available if you come to a particular room at the Legislature. Clearly, the majority of people will never see the proposed text.
I emailed the chair and vice-chairs asking them to make the text available to the public on the Web and then reschedule the bill 48 hours after that.
They may not agree with me. In fact, it would be a very pleasant surprise if they do. I'll wait a while to see if they reply, and if not, I'll post the details here.
Meanwhile, if anyone is aware of any other "secret" amendments that are not made available to the public before a hearing, you can send the info to leak@bringsunshinetohawaii.com.
I received a tip that it's happening again. A House committee has put a note on their hearing notice on the Web that an amendment is available if you come to a particular room at the Legislature. Clearly, the majority of people will never see the proposed text.
I emailed the chair and vice-chairs asking them to make the text available to the public on the Web and then reschedule the bill 48 hours after that.
They may not agree with me. In fact, it would be a very pleasant surprise if they do. I'll wait a while to see if they reply, and if not, I'll post the details here.
Meanwhile, if anyone is aware of any other "secret" amendments that are not made available to the public before a hearing, you can send the info to leak@bringsunshinetohawaii.com.Tags:
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