Senate Finance Committee Chair Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery) and Senate Finance Chair Pamela Beidle (D-Anne Arundel) review a proposal to cap the number of bills a senator can introduce to between 20 and 25 per session. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.
Maryland senators are being asked to prioritize legislation they sponsor after passing a new rule Thursday that puts a cap of as few as 20 bills per senator.
The Senate voted unanimously for the rule — perhaps more of a guideline this session — that lets senators introduce up to 20 bills, and allows them five more if those five are prefiled bills. Senate Majority Leader Nancy King (D-Montgomery) said the goal is to ease the workload of committees that have crushed by the number of bills introduced in recent years.
“I don’t think anybody’s trying to be mean about this,” King said. “I think we’re just asking everybody to take a look at what you’ve got. If it’s really earthshaking and needs to go in this year, then, by all means, put it in. But if it’s something that you’re just hanging out there, just to take the temperature on people, or just to float an idea — hold it for a year and see if we can’t make this a little bit more workable for our committees.”
The proposal sparked nearly 40 minutes of debate on the second day of the 90-day session with some senators — Republicans and Democrats — complaining that it was unfair, imposed late or would be ineffective.
Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) said he spent time recovering from a foot injury by drafting a large number of bills. “If I had known about this prior, I wouldn’t have,” Simonaire said, suggesting he would have limited the number he planned to introduce.
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Hours earlier, Simonaire held a press conference to announce a sweeping package of bills aimed at modernizing laws affecting veterans of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Bills in the package will go to all four of the Senate’s standing committees, he said.
Simonaire and others immediately began asking for the ability to request a suspension of the rules this session to allow lawmakers to exceed the caps.
A year ago, senators were limited to 30 bills but could blow the cap if they prefiled bills before the legislative session.
But Senate Judicial Proceedings Chair William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) defended the cap, saying the volume of bills his committee receives means “hearings run late into the night, and as a byproduct of that, the quality degrades, and the quality of debate degrades.”
“People get tired, and the work product slows down,” Smith said. “I think if we can all adhere to this new rule change, the quality of our work will enhance. The quality of our debate will be more cordial and better in committee. … Ultimately, it’s going to be a better thing for our committee products.”
While it is not a rule in the Senate, traditionally each bill that is introduced in a timely fashion is guaranteed a hearing.
The new rule includes a number of exceptions. As in previous years, bills introduced at the request of a county government or state department do not count against a senator’s total, but the lawmaker has to designate the requesting entity in the bill, making it easier to track.
And while some members feigned surprise at the proposal, the new rule was rolled out to senators last month.
The concern about the flood of bills is not new. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and some committee chairs publicly groused last year about number of bills gumming up the process, resulting in delays and discord.
“There was a group that met over the interim to discuss how we could make the committee review process of all of our thousands of bills a little more expeditious,” said Senate Rules Committee Chair Shelly Hettleman (D-Baltimore County).
A number of senators who complained about the new rule were the same lawmakers identified in the past as introducing large numbers of bills.
“Some of us, I think, probably made commitments to people to introduce legislation,” said Sen. Chris West (R-Baltimore and Carroll counties). “And it would be very difficult and awkward at this point to go back to the people to whom we had made commitments and say, because of a rule of just adopted, I can’t introduce the bill that I promised to introduce.”
That was echoed by Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel) who said the change would upend plans he and others may have had about bills they planned to sponsor.
“It’s really difficult after having made commitments to others and have already mapped out the bills that you’re going to be likely doing for this session,” Lam said. “I understand it’s not intended to be punitive. I know there were discussions that were going on, but, you know, obviously when the rules come out is where the rubber hits the road.”
Five years ago, West and Lam led their respective caucuses in the number of bills filed. The large number of bills resulted in an initial cap.
West at the time called the bills “piffles,” legislation that makes minor changes to existing law.
Lam suggested that the change would not result in the promised streamlining. He claimed that if the rule had been in place last year, it would have only reduced the 1,188 bills introduced by about 59 bills. Half of those would have been “redistributed” for introduction by lawmakers with room under the cap, leading to just “a 29-bill reduction.”
“That’s a 2-1/2 percent reduction,” Lam said.
Senate Budget and Taxation Vice Chair Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) called for a different solution to overworked committees, pointing to Congress where, “They only have hearings on bills that the chair and the ranking member of the committee decide to have a hearing on.” Rosapepe said “open-ended hearings” have the biggest effect on the quality of work.
“All of us … sat through committee hearings on bills that have been in three times and the same people come in and the advocates have a feeling that they have to show up and talk,” he said.
Some committees already have a rule where they allow only sponsor testimony on bills that passed the committee unanimously the year before but failed to pass the full legislature.
“I would just urge, as part of this effort to make the workload better, that we move towards … limiting oral testimony to when it is actually useful,” Rosapepe said.
Sen. Mike McKay (R-Western Maryland) balked at Rosapepe’s proposal. He noted that speakers are already limited to 2 minutes of testimony.
“That is absolutely going against why we broke away from England,” said McKay. “I mean, we are supposed to be here so that the people can voice the way the laws are being written in the state of Maryland.
“I’m willing to limit us on how many [bills] we can put in and set our priorities,” he said. “But we cannot, we cannot and will not limit residents in the state of Maryland from coming down and voicing their support or opposition for what the work we do here every 90 days.”