Gard and Co. want legislators to vote on bills they have not had a chance to read and the rest of us have never even heard of.
Legislating by stopwatch
By
Senator Judy Robson
Publicity is one of the purifying elements of politics . . . Nothing checks all the bad practices of politics as public exposure.
-- Woodrow Wilson, 1913
Government should operate in a fish bowl, where all the world can see how we conduct the people's business.
Too often, in the eyes of the public, government seems like an impenetrable fortress.
My fellow Senate Democrats and I are fighting for transparency in the Wisconsin Legislature. "Transparency" describes the openness of institutions - the degree to which outsiders such as citizens or stockholders can monitor and evaluate the actions of insiders such as government officials or corporate managers.
Average citizens may find it impossible to know what goes on in the Legislature unless they hire their own personal lobbyists to track the issues that concern them.
We legislators hear all the time from constituents who are interested, on a personal level, in particular pieces of legislation. They want to know the twists and turns it takes through the legislative process. They may want an opportunity to testify at a public hearing. They want their voices to be heard.
But even your own personal lobbyist would have trouble tracking legislation that goes to a public hearing before it has been introduced as a bill with an official bill number.
This troubling practice is on the rise in the Legislature -- rushing bill drafts to public hearing before they have been formally introduced. Until they are introduced in a house of the Legislature, bill drafts traditionally are for legislators' eyes only. They are not posted on the Legislature's Web site or other public access points. A citizen has no way to know what the bill says, unless he or she has an inside connection to the bill's author.
Assembly Speaker John Gard's "100 Day Agenda" is a case in point. By April 12, speaker Gard wants the Assembly to pass nine pieces of legislation. The trouble is that most of the bills are still in drafting. These include regulatory "reform" and a new business tax credit. There is no telling how much time the public - not to mention legislators - will have to understand the ramifications of these bills before they go to the Assembly for a vote.
Another troubling practice is to vote bills out of committee by ballot, away from the committee table, rather than in the full light of public scrutiny. Far too many chairs of committees are taking votes on important legislation in secret by what is known in the Capitol as "paper ballot."
Legislators have a duty to debate the merits of legislation in the full light of day. We should be required to justify our reasons for passing bills and to defend our reasons for opposing them.
When the Senate adopted its rules of procedure for the two-year session Senate Democrats offered an amendment to end the practice of holding public hearings on bills that have not been introduced. We offered another amendment to prohibit committees from voting on bills by ballot rather than in open session. The majority Republicans rejected both amendments.
Republican leaders cite "efficiency" as the reason for these practices. They say they want to make government more efficient. Speeding up the process may be a virtue when it comes to making toothpaste, but when it comes to making public policy speeding up the process tends to shut people out.
As the Senate Democratic leader, I refuse to agree to legislate by stopwatch.
Governor Doyle will declare March 13-19 "Sunshine Week." I look forward to celebrating this week with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. It will be a great opportunity to renew our commitment to doing the people's business in the bright light of day, with an open door to public participation.
March 1, 2005
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Judy Robson lives in Beloit and represents most of Rock County and the northwest portion of Walworth County in the Wisconsin Senate's 15th district.
