| Introduction
Understanding
the Legislative Process
Building
an Effective Anti-SDMCA Coalition
Participating
in the Legislative Process
Working
with the Media
Acknowledgements
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Understanding the Legislative
Process
It's far easier
to kill a bill than to pass it, which is something that will work in
your favor throughout the process of opposing the SDMCA. The broad legislative
process in every state was originally designed with the goal of providing
for both public scrutiny and careful consideration of new legislation.
This process may now be riddled with exceptions, loopholes, and shortcuts
for pushing legislation through quickly. However, these tricks become
much more difficult when outsiders start paying close attention and
enlist the aid of even a handful of sympathetic legislators.
Topics covered in
this section:
How
a bill becomes a law
Typically your state
legislature will consist of two "houses", which must pass the same version
of a bill, which must then be signed by the governor. Bills may be introduced
in one house, and then in the other, or they may be introduced simultaneously.
When different versions of the same bill are passed in each house, there
is generally a "conference committee" that will meet to iron out the
differences. The resulting bill must be re-passed in both houses.
Committees
Bills are generally
reviewed by one or more committees in each house. Committees are where
most of the action will take place, and even before a bill is introduced,
it's a good idea to try to identify the committees that will hear it.
If it has only been introduced in one house, you should immediately
start asking around to find out what committee is likely to hear it
in the other house.
It is hard to predict
what committee will hear the SDMCA; here's a quick sampling:
- Criminal Justice (TX, MA)
- Judiciary (OR,
SC, TN)
- Regulated Industries (TX) or Public Utilities (GA)
- Information and
Technology (CO)
- State Veterans
and Military Affairs (CO)
- Finance, Ways
& Means (TN)
- Rules and Public
Affairs (OR)
Some of these are
a bit random, but in most state's it's heard in either criminal justice
or judiciary committees, and public utilities committees are popular
as well.
Monitoring
the process
Opposing legislation
is a series of pitched, defensive battles. Battlefield intelligence
is one of your most critical assets.
Most legislatures
now have at least some web-based ability to track and read bills, as
well as individual web sites for legislators and committees. This should
be your starting point for monitoring the status of any SDMCA-type bill.
Some states, such as Texas, provide up-to-date information about official
bill status, as well as online video of committee hearings.
However, even in
Texas, where there is a strong commitment to online access to the legislative
process, the process moves so quickly that it's hard to stay on top
of new developments without having someone actually present at the legislature
on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons that it is important to
have allies who have hired full-time lobbyists. Full-time lobbyists,
even if they don't "get" the issue particularly well and are
dealing with several dozen other issues, have their ears to the ground
and can let you know when a new amendment is going to be made, when
new substitute language has been proposed, and when the sponsor is getting
ready to do something sneaky.
Opportunities
to kill a bill
Every state process
is different, but the following is a partial list of opportunities to
influence or kill a bill:
- Kill
the bill in committee. Educating and persuading committee
members is your most effort-effective approach to stopping a bill.
If you can persuade a majority of the committee that has been assigned
a bill to either vote down a bill or prevent it from being voted on,
it will be very difficult for the bill to ever make it to a vote by
the entire legislative body. But beware: just because you've won over
the committee, these bills sometimes have powerful allies who can
bypass the committee process or inspire a sudden change of heart in
a committee majority.
- Propose
amendments. Most legislators and their staffs are overworked,
and if you want a friendly legislator to submit an amendment, you
have to write it yourself. There will typically be a well-defined
style for doing this; many legislatures' web pages have "drafting
guides" that can assist you. Your legal leaders can get templates
and advice on formatting from your legislative leaders.
- Alternate
bills. The "Consumers Aren't Criminals" coalition
has created a model bill that accomplishes what the MPAA says
they want to accomplish, without being over broad or imposing ridiculously
disproportionate penalties. This model can be adapted to fit the structure
and language of your state codes. Once drafted in the proper format,
you can have your amendment ready to suggest to legislators when you
visit them. Amendments can be made (and are most frequently made)
at the committee level, but they can also be made during debate on
the bill before the entire legislative body.
- Fiscal
notes & budget issues. Your state legislator may have,
as part of its process, a practice of putting "fiscal notes"
on bills. These notes are prepared by a staff group that works for
the legislature, who attempt to determine the budget impact of a particular
bill. To the extent that the proposed legislation expands penalties
or creates new offenses, and is actually used to convict anyone, it
will have a budget impact. Find out what the "fiscal note"
practice is in your state (if any), and how you can influence the
practice (directly, or through a friendly legislator's office), and
how criminal justice bills are evaluated for fiscal impact.
- Points
of order. Every state legislature will have its own set of
parliamentary
rules. These rules govern the flow of legislation from itnroduction
to passage, and regulate the behavior of the members of the legislative
body. Citizens don't have standing to invoke these rules, but a friendly
legislator who knows how to manipulate them can work wonders. Because
the Texas legisalture only meets for 140 days every two years, delaying
tactics were critical in effectively killing the bill for the next
two years. Invoking these rules is called "raising a point of
order," and the final tactic that pushed the bill out of the
regular session was a point of order invoking Rule 4, Section 32(c)
of the Texas House rules, which requires a "detailed analysis
of the subject matter of the bill or resolution."
- Defeating
on the floor. This is the hardest thing to do. To win a floor
fight you'll need a fairly dedicated core team of people to visit
the offices of almost every legislator, backed up by mail, faxes and
phone calls from constituents. Also, you will typically only end up
in a floor fight if you've lost in committee, and if you've lost in
committee it may be tough to get even friendly committee members to
lead a floor fight. Because of this, its a good idea early in the
process to identify and brief several potentially friendly legislators
in addition to those on the committee.
The process may be
moving too fast to do this in an organized way once the bill passes
out of committee, so it's best to be prepared.
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