THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

NEW YORK STATE’S LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
■ THE SHORT LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
The period of time in a session between the introduction of a bill and its final
passage by both chambers of the Legislature is the timeframe during which any
review, debate, deliberation, or amendment of that bill occurs. In New York, that
period is generally extremely brief, even for the major legislation that one might
expect to receive the most sustained attention from legislators.
For the 308 major laws passed from 1997 through 2001, the median number of
days between a bill’s introduction and its passage was 10 in the Assembly and 35
in the Senate. 23 In the Assembly, 124 out of the 308 laws (i.e., 40.3%) were passed
within five days or fewer of their introduction. In the Senate, 85 laws (i.e., 27.6%)
were passed within five days or fewer. Notably, in both 1997 and 2000, the
Assembly spent a median of just two days on major legislation between introduction
and final passage. See Fig. 1.
With such an abbreviated period available between a bill’s introduction and its
passage, there is rarely even the possibility that legislators could meaningfully
review, consider, hold hearings on, debate, or amend a bill prior to its passage.
To be sure, individual legislators may have considered the issue at hand before
the legislation itself is introduced. In addition, some of these bills were doubtless
versions of earlier bills that may have been passed or considered in prior
sessions by one of the two chambers. Still, even in such cases, consideration
of an earlier version of a bill or of the general issue it addresses cannot fully
substitute for the careful consideration that a bill should itself receive prior to
final passage.
The subsections that follow document a legislative process that facilitates speedy
passage of legislation without full consideration, debate, or amendments by
legislators. Specifically, the section addresses each of five steps in the life of a
bill – committee consideration, procession through the legislative calendar, debate
and amendments on the floor, passage by each chamber, and reconciliation
between chambers – to compare New York’s legislative process with that of other
state legislatures and Congress. 24 In addition, we analyze committee staffing
and assignments, which have a significant impact on that process.
■ CONSIDERATION BY COMMITTEES
In most modern legislatures, committees “are the locus of most legislative
activity.” 25 Committees have two principal functions: first, to enable legislators to
develop, examine, solicit public and expert feedback upon, and improve bills in a
specific area of expertise and to convey the results of their work to the full
chamber; 26 and second, to oversee certain administrative agencies to ensure that
they fulfill their statutory mandates. New York’s high volume of bills introduced
FIGURE 1
NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE
■
DAYS BETWEEN INTRODUCTION
AND PASSAGE OF
MAJOR LEGISLATION 1997-2001
SENATE
Days Number of Bills
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
1– 9
10 – 19
20 – 29
30 – 39
40 – 49
50 – 59
60 – 69
70 – 79
80 – 89
90 – 99
100 – 109
110 – 119
120 – 129
130 – 139
140 – 149
150 – 159
160 – 169
170 – 179
180 – 189
190 – 199
200 – 209
ASSEMBLY
Days Number of Bills
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
1– 9
10 – 19
20 – 29
30 – 39
40 – 49
50 – 59
60 – 69
70 – 79
80 – 89
90 – 99
100 – 109
110 – 119
120 – 129
130 – 139
140 – 149
150 – 159
160 – 169
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