Business, Advocacy and Citizen Groups Gather in Albany to Tell Legislators:

“It’s a New Year, It’s Time for New Rules!”

Groups Urge Legislators to Vote for Comprehensive Rules Reform


Albany, NY - Today, concerned citizens, business associations and advocacy organizations gathered in Albany from across the State to urge the members of the Senate and Assembly to vote for comprehensive rules changes in this legislative session.

Those gathered called for rules reforms that would, at a minimum:

Give each committee chairperson the power to hire and fire the committee’s staff;

Require public hearings on legislation or agencies if one-fourth of the committee demands such a hearing, and require committee reports on all bills reported to the floor;

End the practice of proxy voting in committees in the Senate and require attendance at all committee meetings;

Enable committee members to obtain a vote on their bills from the chairperson, and enable the sponsor to move to discharge a bill from a committee’s consideration, more easily and more quickly;

Record and place transcripts of all committee meetings and hearings on the chambers’ websites to allow the public to hold their representatives accountable;

Require, in both chambers, that the Rules Committees comply with all present requirements on standing committees;

Require that all bills reported favorably out of committee must be considered and voted upon by the full chamber within sixty days, or before the end of the session, whichever is earlier;

Require that two-thirds of the elected members of a chamber vote to use a “message of necessity” before one can be used, in order to prevent legislators from voting on bills without fully considering them;

End the practice of “empty-seat voting;”

Require that conference committees be convened upon the request of the bills’ sponsors in each chamber to resolve differences between the Assembly and Senate and produce a final bill that everyone can live with; and

Prevent the reduction of individual members’ allocations for office staff and supplies.

A list of organizations and businesses that support these comprehensive rules reforms and statements from many of them are attached to this release.

For additional information about efforts to reform Albany, please visit Reforming the NYS Legislature.


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SILVER AND NESBITT ANNOUNCE BIPARTISAN AGREEMENT
REFORMING ASSEMBLY RULES

Changes To Make Assembly Proceedings More Open And Efficient

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Minority Leader Charles Nesbitt today announced a series of internal rules changes that will dramatically improve the way the Assembly operates.

“The Assembly Majority Conference has a long-standing commitment to making our state government more open and accountable. For the past several months, we have sought to expand this effort by turning our attention to the way we in this, the People’s House, conducts our business,” said Silver. “The proposed changes we announce today are the product of many hours of thoughtful conversation and debate among our members – a conversation we pledge to continue as part of our overall efforts to reform the way this state operates.”

Silver noted that as the Legislature begins its 2005 session, making state government more efficient, productive and responsive will be among the Assembly’s top priorities. To that end, the Assembly is set to unveil a broad government reform agenda on Monday of next week.

“The changes we are announcing today will make significant substantive improvements to the way business is conducted within the Assembly,” said Nesbitt. “Our conference has advocated for many of these changes for years. I enthusiastically support these new rules and expect that they will have full conference support. I look forward to building on this bipartisan agreement as we begin this legislative session.”

“Since the time we set out to review and improve the way the Assembly functions, I have had countless conversations with members from both sides of the aisle on how to make positive changes in the rules of this house,” said Assembly Majority Steering Committee Chair Jack McEneny. “I am thankful for and proud of the sincere efforts by members of the steering committee and each individual member whose thoughtful contributions and input resulted in these changes.”

According to Silver and Nesbitt, the changes sought by the Assembly and expected to be taken up next week will reform the operating procedures within the house, making the conduct of the house’s business more efficient and open. These goals will be achieved by:

• ending empty-seat voting by requiring slow roll calls on all bills;
• instituting Tuesday sessions to allow for greater review and debate of legislation;
* overhauling the Assembly’s Rules Committee by clarifying the committee’s function as a means for scheduling floor action and make its meetings, which will have published agendas, open and public;
• extending the time for unlimited bill introduction from early March to the first Tuesday in May and establishing the first legislative day in June as the date from which all bills reported from a standing committee are referred to the Rules Committee;
• requiring the Rules Committee to approve acceptance of all governor’s Messages of Necessity with consideration being given to the adequacy of the messages;
• requiring the Assembly and Senate to each pass a concurrent budget resolution in early March setting out a timetable for key budget decisions, including immediately convening a joint conference committee to negotiate differences to achieve a more timely state budget;
• easing the Motion to Discharge process by extending the period for their consideration;
• establishing a vital subcommittee structure to provide members a greater role in researching, analyzing and debating various legislative issues;
• requiring notification to relevant committee chairs and ranking minority members when a bill’s sponsor amends the bill on the floor to ensure the revised bill is properly reviewed;
• conducting annual budget implementation hearings to ensure a consistent process for a public review of state agency compliance with the enacted budget;
• renewing the Assembly’s efforts for a statewide public service cable TV channel to cover state government with the immediate goal of televising Assembly proceedings statewide (session is currently available through web cast and cable cast in the Capital Region) ;
• restricting lobbyist access in the area at the rear of the Assembly Chamber;
• requiring all bills be sent to the governor for approval within specific time frames after passage by both the Assembly and Senate: 10 days by May 1, 30 days by June 1 and 45 days thereafter; and
• streamlining the process by which guests are introduced in the Assembly Chamber by permitting members to make introductions at the beginning of each day’s legislative session. All other introductions will be made by the chair on behalf of the members.

In addition to these changes, the Assembly Majority Steering Committee will continue to develop other reform initiatives through the use of subcommittees. The topics of continued discussion will be constitutional reform, information technology reforms for both the Assembly Chamber and legislative offices and legislative redistricting.

The Steering Committee will also examine more closely the Assembly’s standing committee process, including minimum meeting requirements, expanding the committee report process, possible member sanctions for breaches of Assembly rules in terms of attendance and enhanced use of conference committees.

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Senate Democrats Condemn Proposed Rules Changes
Karen DeWitt


ALBANY, NEW YORK (2005-01-07) Democrats in the State Senate say new rules changes proposed by Republicans who lead the State Senate will actually result in less power for minority party members.

The proposed Senate rules claim to put an end to empty seat voting, but would require Senators to be in the chamber only if they are voting no on an issue. Senate Democrats say that rule mainly applies to them, since most issues are decided in advance by the Majority Republicans. Senate Minority Leader David Paterson says democrats are usually the only ones voting no.

"So now, you're going to have sit in the chamber every minute of the day ," Paterson complained.

Senator Paterson says democrats may even have to miss committee meetings, which are often called off the floor during session.

Assembly Democrats and Assembly Republicans jointly issued rules changes in their house. Democrats in the Assembly, who outnumber Republicans by two to one, have less to lose by sharing power with the minority party. In the Senate, Republicans hold a more precarious lead. The Republican Party lost three seats to Democrats in the last election, and may even lose a fourth. If just a few more seats change hands, Democrats would be in control. Senator Liz Krueger, who chairs the Democrats' task force on reform, says Republicans have handed Democrats an issue for the next legislative races.

"If I switch gears to my partisan democratic hat, if they continue forward in this vein, it will be a gift to us in our next campaigns two years from now ," Krueger said.

The Senate changes would also allow committee chairs to hire and, presumably, fire their own staff, expand time allotted for floor debate, and make it easier for any member of a committee to hold a hearing on an issue.

The proposed rules changes will be debated in both chambers on Monday afternoon.