Must See TV?
Photo by Steve Kotchko
Posted 5/4/10
If you’re flipping around with TV remote control this week searching your cable company’s 5000 wonderful channels, and you can’t find anything new and interesting, perhaps you should check out the General Assembly. This is the final week of the 2010 legislative session. The House and Senate surely will be meeting in TV “prime time” and beyond as they lumber toward their constitutional adjournment deadline midnight May 5.
Live House and Senate sessions are shown on the Connecticut Network (CT-N), provided by all cable outfits in Connecticut. CT-N is funded by state government. You won’t get the entertainment values typical of “American Idol” or “Dancing with the Stars”, but at one in the morning, there may not be much else on TV.
The legislature has its own lingo, so we’re going to provide some “translations” for phrases commonly heard in the House and Senate during the drive toward final adjournment:
“Mr. Speaker (of the House), through you, a few questions for the proponent of the bill.” This conversation starter often comes from a lawmaker opposed to the bill on the floor. This lawmaker already knows the answers to the myriad of questions he or she will ask. The questions are designed to make the bill’s sponsor sweat. In the worst case scenario, the bill’s sponsor may become so rattled; it could prompt the following legislative move.
“Mr. Speaker, may this item be passed temporarily?” The powers-that-be in the House chamber have decided this bill is in trouble—better to pull it for now, and see if some accommodation can be made to save it. However, if you hear the following sound, watch out.
A loud persistent whistle offered by numerous members on both sides of the political aisle—akin to the noise a bomb makes as it falls out of a B-52’s bomb bay doors. This isn’t hard to figure out. The mock dropping bomb whistle signifies lawmakers intuitive judgment that the bill at issue is doomed. This sound effect occurs only in the House. The Senate is too “dignified” for such activity.
“Mr. President (of the State Senate), at this time, I’d like to ask that the Senate stand in recess for the purpose of a Democratic caucus.” If this happens in the Senate, you should probably grab your remote control and look for reruns of Masterpiece Theater or an English Premier League soccer game, because the Senate “recess” time will be long enough for lawmakers to have a leisurely dinner (or midnight meal) while they discuss pending bills in private.
“Mr. Speaker, the clerk has an amendment”. In the closing days (or nights) of the session, when supporters and opponents already have spent hours debating the pros and cons of a particular bill, nothing causes reporters and lawmakers more pain than these words. It means some lawmakers have decided to extend the pain by bringing an amendment or perhaps many amendments to change the legislation. They usually don’t succeed, but they give opponents a chance to make points that might be used in the fall campaigns.
“Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues have already mentioned most of the concerns I have about this bill, so I will be brief.” In reality, they never are brief.
“Mr. President, if there are no objections, I’d like to move this bill to the consent calendar.” This is legislative bliss. It means no Senator has any issues with the bill at hand, so it is approved by group consent, without the need for a roll call vote.
“We tried our best to achieve a bipartisan agreement on this issue, but it was too complicated to resolve and the clock ran out, so perhaps we can address this matter in a special session.” Connecticut’s founding fathers wanted a part-time legislature so lawmakers should spend time with their families, communities, and in real jobs, so they put constitutional limits on the session length each year. Modern lawmakers have closed their eyes to that intent. They play games with the schedule every year, and seem to have no guilt about putting off thorny issues until some future special session. The result? There is nothing special about special sessions these days.