THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

legislation. As a result, the final product – the bill reported to the floor and passed
into law – suffers from being inadequately fertilized, revised, and incubated into
a mature and well-crafted approach to a specified problem. In addition, the
absence of hearings prevents the development of an important part of the legislative
history that courts use to interpret laws and to enforce the Legislature’s
will faithfully.
■■ COMMITTEE MEETINGS
It is commonly understood in Albany that meetings of standing committees
rarely involve any significant consideration, discussion, or debate concerning a
piece of legislation. Although the available data are limited, what is available confirms
this perception.
For each of the 308 major laws analyzed, we sought minutes and other records
for all meetings of the committees to which each bill was referred for the legislative
session in question. 44 Significantly, the Rules of the Senate require that
minutes shall be taken of all open meetings of committees, including a record
of all motions, proposals, resolutions, and any other matters voted upon. 45 As
a general rule, however, chairpersons of Senate committees do not have
minutes recorded for their meetings except to the extent that members’ votes are
recorded for each bill. 46 This failure to comply with the Senate’s limited requirements
for transparency not only impedes research but also limits public access
to the legislative process and reduces public accountability of the State’s elected
representatives. The Assembly’s committees follow the same unfortunate
practices, albeit without being in violation of any of that chamber’s own rules. 47
Still, from the records of committee votes on legislation and other materials that
are available, certain facts are clear.
First, the standing committees in the Assembly and the Senate usually address
each bill at only one committee meeting, if at all, to cast a vote on it. 48 According
to one Senator, moreover, “[c]ommittees handle the average bill in a matter of
seconds. While there is occasionally longer discussion of legislation, this is the
exception rather than the rule.” 49
Second, the infrequency of committee meetings reflects the limited scope of
committee work. In both the Assembly and the Senate, committee meetings are
ostensibly scheduled either weekly or biweekly throughout the session. 50 Because
minutes are not regularly kept and no reliable record of the use of proxy votes in
the Senate exists, however, it is not possible to determine accurately the number
or the regularity of committee meetings in either chamber. Many committees
meet only a few times each year. For example, in 2003, the Senate Aging
Committee met only three times; the Senate Banks Committee met five times; the
Senate Cities Committee met five times; and the Senate Housing, Construction,
and Community Development Committee met only once for the entire year. 51
Tales of committees that have never met but nevertheless voted to pass bills are
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