Thursday, December 16, 2010

How a bill becomes a law? Rep. Carl Wimmer Style.

In about a month and half the 2011 Legislative Session will begin here in Utah. Once again it will be that crazy political time where our elected officials come together to find ways to help our state to continue being the best. However at the same time, politics at its worst will also come forth in the form of bad message bills and back door favors. Though there are often message bills full of important content that may help the public be aware of the issues affecting our communities, state and even the nation; there are also many message bills that serve no purpose at all. These, no purpose, message bills are not only a waste of time, but a waste of money. After talking to a number of people who work at the legislature, we have determined it is hard to understand how much a bad message bill would cost. Therefore I have decided to break down how a bill becomes a law using Rep. Carl Wimmer’s Official State Gun Bill as an example.
  1. Rep. Carl Wimmer will submit his idea for the State Gun bill to the OLRGC (Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel).
  2. General Counsel’s office will then open a bill file.
  3. General Counsel assigns a legislative attorney or analyst to then draft the bill.
    1. We then pay someone to do some research and draft the bill, shouldn't be to hard for a State Gun.
  4. Someone is paid to then write an Approval Letter and then send the letter and draft of the bill to Rep. Wimmer.
  5. Rep. Wimmer then reviews the draft legislation, signs and returns the draft letter. Unless he has changes he will then contact the draft attorney and we will start over at Step 3. (I assume this will be an easy one so no changes will be made.)
  6. General Counsel will prepare the final draft which includes:
    1. Having someone numbering of the bill
    2. Having someone deliver a copy to Rep. Wimmer
    3. Having someone deliver a copy to the Docket Clerk in the House, the Billroom, and the Office of the Fiscal Analyst.
    4. Having someone post the bill on the internet and intranet.
  7. The bill is then introduced (read) by number and short title (which is short) and referred to the House Rules Committee.
  8. The Rules committee (9 people including Rep. Wimmer) will then meet and discuss the bill.
    1. They will ask the bill be printed with a fiscal note (I assume this will not have one).
    2. Then recommend which standing committee this bill will go to.
  9. The Speaker of the House then assigns this bill to the recommended standing committee.
  10. Standing Committee then meets (9 to 15 people give or take). Which one will take a State Gun Bill?
    1. A public meeting will be scheduled. (Hot item)
  11. A public meeting is held with the Standing Committee
    1. Rep. Wimmer will present the bill, committee members can ask questions (assuming there will be only a few) and then the public will ask questions (assuming no one cares, there will be none).
    2. At this time the bill can be amended, put on hold, tabled, substituted or make a favorable recommendation for the bill. (We will assume all will go well, who wants to make enemies with Mr. Wimmer, besides it is just a State Gun).
  12. The bill is then read for a second time in the House; so we must take up time again to read it about the State Gun.
    1. Nobody can amend or change the bill at this time.
  13. House staffers then place this on the calendar for the third reading.
  14. The bill is read for the third time. Blah Blah Blah State Gun Blah Blah Blah.
  15. Rep. Wimmer then presents his bill and gives a 15 to 20 minute oration as to how this gun saved America and why we are all wasting our time listening to this bill.
  16. Others will speak for it or against it. A few will speak for it and say what a great American Mr. Browning was and how this gun is awesome. They will thank Rep. Wimmer for bringing this bill forward. If we get lucky one or two people will say they are not sure but will vote for it anyways.
  17. If there no amendments or substitutions we can move on. If there are amendments then we have to go back a few steps. But let’s assume there isn’t (unless we designate a state bullet while we are at it).
  18. Then we vote!
    1. We need 38 yes votes for this to pass, the bell will chime and those who are out in the hall will come in and vote yes or no.
  19. Rep. Wimmer will then ask someone to be his Senate Floor Sponsor and notify the docket clerk in the House.
  20. The Senate will now do the all of the same things the House did. Starting with Step 7 through 18.
    1. There are few differences but essentially the same steps.
  21. We Vote!
    1. 15 yes votes is all this bill needs to move on.
  22. Assuming no amendments from the Senate, this bill does not need to go back to the House. If it does, then we start back at Step 7 again. If there are no changes we can move to step 23.
  23. Presiding Officers find a time to sign the bill
  24. The bill is sent back to the General Counsel for enrolling.
    1. The bill is then color coded (Blue for House and Yellow for Senate).
  25. The bill is then ordered to be printed and sent to the Governor’s office to be signed.
  26. The bill will then sit there for a few days (He has 20 days after the adjournment to sign it) until the Governor signs it.
  27. Then the new laws need to be published. We will then have people update the internet site, Utah Code and The Laws of Utah.
Some additional costs we have not considered is all of the IT and staffer time it will take to setup the rooms, turn on the microphones, clean the offices, set up chairs, and do other things to make sure everything is correct.  But it is hard to put a cost on all of that.

Well there you have it, 27 Shorts steps to a bill and then we are done! Shouldn’t take much money at all; so I wish Rep. Wimmer the best. All in all, this will probably be the cheapest bill the legislature sees all year.  In recession, I think we need to save money everywhere we can and this is a waste of money for something everyone will forget about it in less than a year, I mean does anyone remember that the state vegetable is the Spanish Sweet Onion.

1 comment:

Educational Politics in Utah said...

I also learned that the state tartan is the Utah State Tartan. What is a tartan you say? Well it is a Scottish Kilt and shows that politicians have been wasting time and money for a long time. I hope Rep. Wimmer feels good about showing his fiscal conservatism and his Browning 1911. Do you think they will issue one to every Utahan?