Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

I find this wanton disregard for House rules on public notice to be particularly disturbing when it is perpetrated repeatedly by chosen House leadership.

Just minutes ago, at about 1:46, House Judiciary Committee chair Karl Rhoads requested and obtained waivers from the Speaker of the required 48-hour notice—to hold hearings at 2 p.m. today! That’s 14 minutes notice, if you were there any paying attention.

If you want to be there, hurry up. You get no waiver. By the time I post this, you will have about 1 minute and 30 seconds before the first hearing.

House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke gave only a wee bit more notice, but not much: 1:38 p.m. for a 2:01 p.m. schedule, or 23 minutes notice.

As usual, I want to spotlight the perpetrators, in case you spot them in your neighborhood:

The bill scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. hearing (request time-stamped 1:46 p.m.) is SB2103. Bills scheduled for a 2:01 p.m. hearing (request time-stamped at 1:38 p.m.) are SB2849, SB2645, SB2076, SB2476. SB2071, SB1374, SB2301, SB3102, SB2131, SB2604, SB2535, SB3034, SB837, SB194 and SB3099.

If these chairs were at all concerned with public notice, couldn’t they at least have requested the waivers at the beginning of the floor session??

Sylvia Luke is a repeat offender. Of course, she could not cut the public out without the connivance of the Speaker.

Ok, hurry up. You have about a minute before the first hearing and two minutes to get ready for the second. Speed legislation. Speeding by public accountability as fast as they can manage.

Shame.

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Correction: The original version of this post incorrectly identified one waiver from the Judiciary Committee as from Finance. This is now corrected.