Welcome to Policy Watch 2006

PART II – WEEK FIVE IN OLYMPIA

THE SCENE

Week Four was full of long days and tough schedules, but for staff and legislators connected to the House Appropriations Committee, the end of a cut-off week is always particularly grueling.

For starters, they have to wait for the Policy Committees to finish and send bills along to a Fiscal Committee. A lot of that happened in the first three days of last week. So Thursday and Friday were pretty hectic: in each of their regularly-scheduled 2-hour Sessions on Thursday and Friday, they acted on about 10 bills. Then, with the “cut-off” date for fiscal committee action looming on February 7, a long list of bills still to consider, and no further Appropriations committee meetings scheduled on Monday or Tuesday of Week Four, business-as-usual was not good enough.

In order to consider as many bills as possible, they scheduled a meeting on Saturday, February 4.

The Committee convened at 9:09 am on Saturday, and – after time-outs for meals, and also to let Democrats caucus with the Democrats and Republicans caucus with the Republicans -- the Committee finally adjourned at 12:13 am on Sunday, February 5. In this marathon 16-hour Committee meeting, they ploughed through 57 (yes, FIFTY-SEVEN!) bills: Public Hearings in the morning, followed by Executive Session all afternoon and into the night. “You should come,” said one of the staff, or watch on TVW. “By the end it’s kind of funny. We’re all pretty rummy by then… and there’s usually a ‘pool’ with everybody putting a dollar in the pot next to the time they’re predicting we’ll be done. So at the very end some people are talking a lot and others are talking really fast… ‘cause people in both groups are hoping to win.”

On Monday morning of Week Five, staff and legislators alike were back on the job, readying all the bills they had just acted on for the next step in the process: Floor Action.

The Process – FLOOR ACTION

This week the action moved to the big domed Legislative Building for Floor Action. Just across the way all the House and Senate office buildings were pretty quiet; even the usually packed Committee rooms were empty since the one or two rare Committee meetings were over by mid-morning. Even the offices of individual Senators and Representatives were quieter than usual.

But over in the Capitol and it was a different story entirely: lots of foot traffic in and out the first floor doors and all across the Rotunda, the sounds of rallies on the Capitol steps reverberating back into the building, and crowds of people clustered just outside the House and Senate chambers on the 3 rd floor, or heading to the visitors’ Galleries on the 4 th floor. That’s where anyone can sit to watch our legislators debate and vote on the bills being called up on the House and Senate floors.

Following Floor Action from Home .

Thanks to modern technology this too can be enjoyed from a distance. Anyone with access to a computer can tune in the actual debates and votes by going to TV Washington at www.tvw.org.

Or, if you just want the results on the bills you care about (without listening to debates about water systems or livestock manure), go to www.leg.wa.gov . For Senate Floor Action click on SENATE (at the top of the page) and scroll down the page to a green-shaded box labeled “Floor Activity Reporting.” That will take you to a list of all the bills already voted out of the Senate Rules Committee and sent to the Floor for a vote. If your bill is in the House, click on HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES at the top, and then on a green-shaded item in a list on the left, labeled “Floor Activity Report.” All the bills listed for action will pop up on your screen.

On either of these lists you’ll find yourself reminded that somewhere in the past you learned that every bill gets three “Readings.”

Floor Action - Three Readings

The First Reading occurs when a bill is formally introduced to the House or Senate. In the old days, before there were recording devices or computers, bills would literally be “read” aloud. Today they quickly get posted on the legislature’s website (www.leg.wa.gov) so there isn’t any need to take the time to read all 2,000+ bills aloud. Besides, modern Americans accustomed to sound bites and 90-second news items would have trouble listening to the reading of an entire bill. The First Reading is, to use a phrase common in legislative jargon, “pro forma” – for form’s sake, a mere formality.

The Second Reading occurs when a bill is moved out to the House or Senate Floor by the Rules Committee, and is called up by the Presiding Officer. At that point a bill is before all 98 members of the House of Representatives, or all 49 members of the Senate. At Second Reading a bill is debated on the Floor, and it can be amended (changed) by any of the members present.

After each amendment is debated, the Presiding Officer calls for a vote on that amendment, until all of the amendments have been individually considered and voted on. If an amendment wins 51% of the votes of those present, it gets added to the bill. If an amendment does not win 51% - it fails, and the bill remains unchanged. By checking the “Floor Activity Report” on the website you can see the list of bills grow and change each day as bills are scheduled for Second Reading.

The Third Reading occurs after all of the amendments have been debated and voted on, and the bill – with the addition of as many floor amendments as won 51% - is brought to a vote. At this point the bill can no longer be amended. Third Reading is the time for an up-or-down vote, YES or NO, on the bill as a whole. To win passage, a bill must get YES votes from a “Constitutional Majority” – which is a majority of those elected to the body (not just a majority of those who happen to be present). If a bill is very controversial, some members may want to avoid casting a public vote. In that case they might just stay away, or go for a walk, or be unavoidably detained on family business. But that’s rare; if enough members “take a walk,” a bill could fail to get its constitutional majority of 50 members of the House, 25 members of the Senate.

Watching from the Gallery or via TVW you can see the votes immediately – particularly in the House. There, all 98 members vote from their desks by pressing a button, and within seconds the Y or N votes light up a large board that also tallies the results. Even in the Senate, where roll-call votes are still taken, a vote for final passage only takes about 2 minutes.

Some bills are considered so non-controversial that they get put on a “Suspension” Calendar (House) or “Consent” Calendar (Senate). Those are bills that virtually by-pass the Second Reading (it’s “suspended”) and go straight to an up-or-down vote.

That’s possible in part because our legislators try to work out their differences in Committee or informal meetings before they get to the Floor; many bills pass with unanimous votes or by very large majorities. But ultimately, members cast their votes based on two strong loyalties: loyalty to their constituents, and loyalty to their personal conscience. Sometimes the two do not agree - and that is always tough for the legislators.

PRACTICAL TIP – floor slips, Hotline messages, and emails

Even though we cannot run into the chamber to try to lobby a Senator or Representative while a bill is being considered on the floor, we can still have influence at this critical point. There are three practical ways to be heard during Floor Action on a bill you care about.

First , you can be present just outside the House or Senate Chamber, and fill out a Floor Slip (Note Pads full of the slips are stacked on low tables) for your legislator. The door keepers will take your note inside and make sure it gets to the right legislator – often one of the young pages will actually deliver it. Those watching from the Gallery or on TVW can see that happen. Legislators read those notes when they have a minute, and depending on how involved they are in the debate, they have a few choices. They can jot a quick reply and send the note back out to the sender, or, they can read the note but stay to listen to the debate or offer amendments.

If they aren’t needed on the Floor, they can step briefly off the House or Senate Floor to go chat with their constituent out in the lobby. If it’s someone they’ve never met before, you’ll see them wave the note and call a name just outside the Chamber door: “Pak? Is there a Sue Pak here?”

Legislators holding leadership positions typically have to stay on the floor the whole time, but they will sometimes have their aides call constituents the next day to explain why they couldn’t leave the Floor, and to make sure their concerns are heard. But that’s not the only way legislators try to make the process seem more accessible.

On Have A Heart For Children Day this week, an 11-year-old and her mother from Elma, Washington sent a Floor Note to their Senator just before the Session got underway. He not only came out to chat with them, he asked: "…do you want to come to the Senate floor with me?" and they did. The girl’s reaction: "Wow, that's was cool."

Second, you can send a HOTLINE message, using the toll-free line to the Capitol (1-800-562-6000). That’s a quick way to get a message to four people with one call: your Senator, your two Representatives, and the Governor. Those messages get tallied by the aides back at their desks, and conveyed to the legislators a few times a day.

Third , you can continue to or an email/write from home. One aide estimated that about half the Legislators now bring their laptops right onto the Floor. If the bill being debated is one they’ve already studied, you’ll see them scrolling through their messages, checking to see if any relate to the bills being considered that day.

And many legislators check with their aides on the days when they spend long hours on the floor. They want to know whether people from their legislative district are calling or writing about issues being voted on that day. Even if there isn’t enough time to read all the messages, they typically ask the staff for totals – how many calls are in favor of a bill, how many are against it. One Senate office reported that over 100 telephone calls came in during just two days this week – all of them in favor of the Fair Share for Health Care bill (also known as “the WalMart bill”) – a fact that was quickly conveyed to the Senator, on the Senate Floor.

The SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET

Action on the budget is heating up. By the middle of next week the Senate Ways & Means Committee is expected to present its version of the Supplemental Budget. The House Appropriations Committee will then present its version of the Supplemental Budget soon after. Anyone concerned about an issue that requires new spending (e.g., those wishing to see children’s health coverage expanded, money for foster care, mental health services, low-cost housing) needs to convey that ASAP to their Representatives and Senators.

Also next week, the latest State Revenue Forecast will be available February 16.

** SNAPSHOTS

** Legislators may have been spending most of their time on the House and Senate Floors but they were keenly aware of the nearly 600 people who turned out for Have A Heart For Children Day – dieticians, students, March of Dimes members, service providers, agency directors, teachers, parents, and children of all ages. Participants carried bright yellow folders with a simple message - Make It Up To KIDS. And legislators were aware of their presence. Among the evidence: they voted on a long list of kid-friendly bills that day, taking time out periodically to recognize some of the many children’s advocates in the gallery.

** When people spend a lot of time together… working on contentious issues… in close quarters… it helps to occasionally lighten things up. Like the day the Senate declared to be “Cowboy Hat Day” and members wore all manner of cowboy hats onto the Senate Floor (including one who tried to get away with a Sheriff’s hat… without success).

** Late last year a group of 12 Whitman College students prepared a hefty Report on the State of the State for Latino/a Washington, and this week five of them came to Olympia to present their findings to state legislators. Despite a specially busy week, legislators from Yakima, Walla Walla, and King County met with the group, as did all three Latina members of the Legislature (Senator Margarita Prentice, Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, and Rep. Mary Skinner). Plus, the students and their politically-savvy teacher timed the visit to coincide with Hispanic/Latino Legislative Day – where they were acknowledged by Latino leaders from across the state.

Armed with careful research, the students were able to alert legislators to some measures important to Washington Latinos that hadn't “gotten on their radar screen," and may have caused a few to view the issues through new eyes. Included were a House bill enforcing prompt payment of wages for farm workers, and a Senate bill to exempt women seeking help for domestic violence from the state ban on using legal aid funds for undocumented immigrants. After one legislator said, "…well they're not supposed to be here," the Whitman group was able to refer him to some interviews in their report that clearly gave him pause: stories of abusive husbands taking children from their mothers, threatening to kill their babies if they didn't do as they were told, and more. For these women, he learned, living in the US is anything but a simple personal choice. But perhaps at some level he already knew that.

As syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman recently pointed out, “The most powerful catalyst for change, sociologists will tell you, is when people learn what they already know.”

** USEFUL TERM: SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION.

Like last week’s PW mentioned House and Senate “Joint Memorials” - which call on the U.S. Congress to act. The two mentioned last week were HJM 4038, which asks Congress to certify diabetes educators as Medicare providers, and give them a seat at the table when decisions regarding diabetes treatment are decided; that passed the House and is now in the Senate. HJM 4033 asks Congress to let states decide whether marijuana should be used legally for medicinal purposes; it is still in the House Rules Committee, waiting to be scheduled for Floor Action.

A different fate has befallen Senate Joint Resolution – SJR 8201. A Joint Resolution is used to propose an amendment to the state Constitution, by referring it to the people for the voters to accept or reject. SJR 8201 would ask the people to decide whether we should amend the state Constitution to “remove the powers of Initiative and Referendum.” Ironically, one of the people who objects to taking this measure “to the people” is the very same Tim Eyman, who insists on taking everything to the people – including the recently-passed civil rights bill that the people, through their elected representatives, decided to accept after 29 years.

SJR 8201 did not survive the cut-off, but its Senate sponsor is likely to try again next year.

ON-GOING: BY NOW you should have taken these two easy actions

Sign up to get regular legislative alerts from an advocacy group that monitors the issue(s) you care most about. (One list is in PART III of POLICY WATCH; if that list doesn’t have what you are looking for, ask your friends, neighbors, co-workers – or google.) Those who write the alerts monitor what is happening and will tell you when your voice is needed. Most will offer a “sample message” you can put in your own words. You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to care about an issue, and talk about it from your own experience.

Promise yourself you will try to make a call or send a note or email once each week about one of the issues in the Legislative Alert you are receiving. With the state’s TOLL-FREE LINE (1-800-562-6000) you can leave a brief message for your Senator, your 2 Representatives, and the Governor – all in just a matter of minutes. 1 call or message a week for the next 7 weeks, and you can have an impact on the policies that affect your life. Pretty cool. (PART III of PW has lots of handy information to help you get, and stay, involved.)

REMINDER :

House Bill numbers begin with 1, 2, or 3;

Senate Bill numbers begin with 5 or 6.

Thus a bill identified as SB 6264 is the 1,264th Senate Bill introduced in the session; HB 1058 would be the 58th bill introduced in the House. More recent bills have higher numbers.

| Back to Policy Watch main page |