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