2007 at 4:46 pm | posted by Rep. Craig Frank
When time is at a premium on the House and Senate floors during the last 72 hours of the General Legislative Session, who gets their bills through?
It may be just as much a function of who you know or who you are as what you know.
[It should be mentioned before I go any farther, that the fact that one of my bills kept getting pushed down the Senate calendar on the last night and died an ignominious death there in 22nd position, has nothing to do with why I’ve written this blog…just in case someone misinterprets this post as sour grapes.]
On the last three days of the session, the Calendars are “wiped” clean, generally. (The “calendar” is the electronic board on which bill numbers are placed in hierarchal fashion and debated in order of their priority.) The Senate then debates only house bills and the House debates only Senate bills during the last 72 hours–generally speaking. The House and Senate Majority Leaders this year—Rep. David Clark and Sen. Curt Bramble–were in charge of choreographing the final “lists” of bills to be considered.
In the House, Rep David Clark requested that each legislator go through the exercise of filling out a “red” sheet with their individual un-passed bill priorities…1…2…3…etc…etc…etc… How the “red” sheet was used in determining the final priorities of the final three days of the 2007 General Session, one may never know. Nevertheless, bills came and went.
A Cornucopia of Data Wonderment
Our award-winning state website is remarkable. Besides doing back handsprings, this technologically advanced and user-friendly website tracked all the bills that “passed” during the session. Not only did it track the bills, but you can now sort those bills by number, bill sponsor, date passed, effective date, Governor’s action, Governor’s action date, and chapter. Let’s sort by “date passed.” Click HERE to play.
The Last Three Days
Out of the 423 bills that “passed” during the entire 45-day session, 215 of those “passed” within the last three days—or 50.8%. More than half.
So, who are the “lucky” legislators?” The “connected” ones? Who are the Legislators who should carry your bills next session? Who, with the right amount of pressure, can turn a lump of coal into a gleaming multi-faceted diamond, as the Chamber’s lights begin to dim?
In the HOUSE (last names of representatives and how many of the 215 bills they passed):
Menlove — 7
Bigelow (Exec. Approps. Co-Chair), Harper, Lockhart (Vice Chair Exec Approps), and Urquhart (Rules Chair) – 6 each
Dee (Assist Maj Whip), Fowlke, Hughes (Rules) – 5 each
Dave Clark (Majority Leader), Dougall, Last, Oda, Tilton – 4 each
Barrus, Froerer, Ray, Sandstrom, Walker (Rules) – 3 each
Brown (Parliamentarian), Buxton, Steve Clark, Dunnigan (Rules), Holdaway, Hutchings, Mathis, Morgan, Morley (Rules), Newbold, Snow (Majority Whip), Wyatt – 2 each
Aagard, Bowman, Cosgrove, Daw, Donnelson, Draxler, Ferry, Julie Fisher, Grover, Herrod, Hunsaker, Litvack (Minor Caucus Manager), Neuenschwander, Noel, Painter, Shurtliff, Wimmer – 1 each
And, in the SENATE (last names of senators and how many of the 215 bills they passed):
Hillyard (Exec Approps Co-Chair) — 11
Killpack (Assist Maj Whip), Knudson (Vice Chair Exec Approps) — 9
Stephenson — 6
Bell (Rules), Bramble (Majority Leader) – 5 each
Hickman (Rules Chair), Niederhauser – 4 each
Buttars, Davis (Minor Whip), Dmitrich (Minor Leader), Eastman (Majority Whip, Stowell – 3 eachChristensen, Dayton, Goodfellow, Jones (Minor Caucus Manager), Mayne (Assist Minor Whip), McCoy, Peterson, Romero, Valentine (President), Waddoups, Walker – 2 each
Greiner, Jenkins, Madsen – 1 each
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
Well…there you have it. 215 bills in less than 72 hours. It’s hard to believe. We must, however, give credit where credit is due. And, who or where would that be? Leadership. Leadership made all that happen in such a short time. Organization. Without organization directly attributed to our legislative leadership we wouldn’t have realized half those bills. Because of organization, 423 more bills will be signed into “law” this year. (Some of the bills aren’t really laws, as you well know.)
Many significant policies were created during the last few hours of the 2007 General Session. The will of the People through their elected representatives, and in turn House and Senate elected leaders, was once again spoken, heard, and executed.
Hopefully we didn’t do too much damage.
Rep. Lorie Fowlke (R-District 59, Orem) is one of five candidates vying for the soon-to-be vacated seat of Judge Anthony Schofield of the 4th District. Lorie recieved her Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU.
Well…that takes care of a big problem on the floor of the House. With one Greg, one Gregg, and a Craig sitting next to each other on the House floor it was getting annoying when someone from the back row would call out to get one of our attention. At least now we have a 50%-50% chance of getting it right.
