State House In Action
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 6/6/11
It’s that happy time again, Connecticut. Your duly-elected General Assembly hits its state constitutional adjournment deadline June 8 at midnight. As always, expect a mad frenzy as lawmakers (and maybe the Governor) fret that their favorite bills won’t make it through the House and Senate in time.
Though parliamentary tricks of the trade can be applied any time during the legislative session, they take on new significance when time is limited, and the stakes are high. If you can’t get your measure adopted this week—it is “wait ‘til next year” for you.
Republicans, in the minority in both chambers, gain a certain measure of power when time is short. They don’t have the votes to stop Democratic initiatives, but the ticking clock becomes their friend. GOP lawmakers do have the right to debate, and it is virtually unlimited. That right is employed in many ways.
One tactic is to ask questions of the Democrat bringing out the bill for floor debate. Once in a while, such questions are genuine, triggered by something confusing in the legislation. Most of the time they are the kinds of questions lawyers pose in court. The answers are already known. The goal is to get your opposing lawmaker to put something embarrassing or revealing on the public record, something they would not have mentioned on their own, something that can be used in the 2012 election campaigns.
Another key strategy is proposing amendments. They won’t pass because Democrats have the votes to block them, but they’re designed to make a point, to point out a flaw, to make the opponents sweat. If a bill would make green, red, and blue the official state colors, why not pass an amendment to add yellow to the list? Well, the deal was cut on the first three colors and it can’t be changed now. Yet the amendment may leave the public asking: “What was wrong with blue?”
Of course, asking a myriad of questions, and trotting out numerous amendments (one bill this year spawned a list of more than 100 potential Republican amendments), eats up time. That’s no biggie in March, but it is a huge problem this week, because that unrelenting adjournment clock keeps ticking.
Majority Democrats have to cope with the Republican “talkathon” as best they can. Often they put out “feelers” to GOP leaders. Example: “If we bring out this bill, would you guys talk it to death today?” If Republicans really hate that bill the answer will be “yes”, and that’s why some controversial bills stagnate on the House or Senate calendar until they meet doom on adjournment night.
If Republicans have a pet bill they want to get through, they may cut a deal with Democrats. “We will keep debate short on your next big bill, if you grant us ours,” they might say. That’s called compromise and it is a prize commodity in the session’s final days.
Another way to end an impasse is a last-minute deal that may change a controversial bill making it more amenable to both parties. Early in the session, majority Democrats might talk tough and say “we’ll do the bill our way”. However, with final adjournment looming, a few changes and a compromise look pretty sweet if they mean the difference between final passage and dying on the vine.
While all those stratagems may make it seem as if minority Republicans have the upper hand, that is not the case. Being in the majority is still the best place to be. Democrats have pushed through several major bills this year, sought by Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy, or from within their own ranks. They have endured lengthy debates, triggered by Republicans, they’ve endured a slew of amendment attempts, and other parliamentary gambits, but they get their bills through.
In recent years, when Republican Governors Jodi Rell and John Rowland ruled, majority Democrats had to worry about the veto threat. That meant they had to amass impressive majorities to pass tough bills and make them “veto proof." Now, with Malloy in place, they usually need just a simple majority.
Democrats also rely on a key principle in politics: When you have the votes, vote. That is determined by holding a party caucus behind closed doors and asking for a show of hands on any given bill, or sending your assistant leaders to do a quiet poll of the rank-and-file. If you determine there are enough solid votes to adopt the bill, roll it out and pass it before anyone on your team has second thoughts.
Leaders don’t twist arms on each and every bill, but on high-profile measures sought by the Governor or their own leadership, when that “yea or nay” is taken, and a lawmaker vows to vote for the bill, their button better be “green” when the final vote is taken. Your word is important at the State Capitol, and a rank-and-file lawmaker who votes contrary to their promise, is in big trouble, especially as adjournment nears and the stakes are high.
Each year is a little different, but when the final gavel comes down at midnight June 8, the adjournment pressures will produce a list of winners and losers--determining who played the game well, and who dropped the ball.