The Legislature’s Joint Rules Committee narrows its plan for recommended rule changes in Augusta on Jan. 6. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
In an effort to limit vague placeholder bills, the Legislature’s Joint Rules Committee recommended stricter parameters on Thursday, including automatically killing proposals if deadlines are not met.
While ultimately reaching enough agreement for a joint order — with 7-1 in support and two absences — committee members from both parties said the proposed change is not expected to be a perfect solution. Some supportive Republican members still advocated for the total elimination of concept drafts, aside from the budget bill and model legislation from other states.
“I would like to have my cake and eat it too as it relates to voting for this but also still with the notion that I just disagree with the premise that concept drafts are necessary at all,” Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) said.
This suggestion was one of several the committee settled on after a meeting earlier this week and two lengthier meetings while the Legislature was out of session. However the committee can only recommend rule changes, so the full Legislature will vote on what restrictions to officially adopt on Tuesday. Only a majority vote is needed to enact rule changes before Jan. 17.
Some of the other recommendations in the joint order include allowing for model legislation adopted from other states or uniform laws to be linked to rather than have nonpartisan staff take time to draft themselves, requiring notices of public hearings on the legislative website rather than the current rule of just flagging in newspapers, and offering a “hybrid model” for assigning legislation to committees in an attempt to free up some space on the session calendars.
The latter would have bills on days the House and Senate are in session to still appear on the calendar for lawmakers to reference but otherwise allow the House clerk and Senate secretary to assign bills to committee, with sign off from the presiding officers, unless it’s unclear where the bill should go.
While many of the recommended changes received unanimous support, this one did not. One of the opposed lawmakers, Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford), argued for all legislation to be automatically referenced to avoid unequal treatment of bills depending on the calendar. Bennett was also the sole opposing vote for the whole joint order.
Some of the other discussed rule changes did not make it into the joint order, including a proposal from Bennett to change the two-thirds threshold to call for an Article V Convention instead to a simple majority. Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows for a convention for proposing amendments with the support of two-thirds of the states.
Lawmakers took opportunities throughout the Thursday meeting, as they have in earlier meetings, to emphasize the need for change, even if they can’t offer perfect solutions at this time.
“We need to try some of these things out,” said Rep. Holly Sargent (D-York), “and we need to be able to be comfortable with this first iteration that we’re putting down and then be able to have ongoing conversations with the nonpartisan staff to see how these things may need to be refined.”
The Rules Committee settled on these changes based on a slew of proposals presented over the summer, when the committee met for the first time since 2018 despite being required to meet annually. Lawmakers intend for this infrequency to no longer be the standard, with committee co-chair Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) proposing meeting both halfway through and at the end of the first regular session to assess how well rule changes pan out and to recommend any necessary tweaks.
Among the issues that were pushed off to those later meetings include placing more restrictions around voting between 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m and again taking up the treatment of Article V conventions. That said, Bennett said he plans to file his own orders on some of these specific issues before then.
The main impetus for the Rules Committee to propose changes to legislative processes was widespread outcry over the increased use of vague placeholder bills, known as concept drafts, particularly those that don’t provide sufficient information about what the bill will be about. And while some legislators still want to see this type of legislation eventually done away with entirely, the committee did reach unanimous agreement for the related rule change in the joint order.
The joint order requires sponsors to fully draft and provide proposed amendment language to legislative staff three business days before a public hearing and for that amendment to be posted online at least two business days before the public hearing. Notably, this means formal, statutory language and not bullet points.
If the sponsor does not meet that deadline, the bill will be automatically withdrawn and placed in the legislative files, which in plain language means it is automatically killed.
After much debate, the committee also decided to include in the joint order a narrow waiver of confidentiality for nonpartisan staff to inform committee chairs of amendment drafting status to assist with scheduling — an effort to prevent nonpartisan staff from being blamed if a lawmaker is not making a good faith effort to meet the deadline. Danielle Fox, director of the Legislature’s Office of Policy and Legal Analysis, said she supported the waiver.
The joint order additionally states that the sponsor of the concept draft is only allowed one draft for their amendment if they’re relying on nonpartisan staff for drafting.
Ensuring nonpartisan staff have the time to do their work was a throughline of discussion Thursday.
Earlier that day in the same room, the Legislative Council met to unanimously approve an additional temporary position in the Senate Republican Office, building on other new positions approved last month in an effort to work toward parity across all offices.
“Part of making sure this building runs smoothly is investing in our staff,” Senate President Mattie Daughtry said.
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