THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

Neither of New York State’s two chambers requires that committees vote on the
bills referred to them. Moreover, New York State’s Legislature renders it extremely
difficult for a bill to be voted out of a committee for consideration by the full
chamber even despite significant support. In both the Assembly and the Senate,
the committee chairs alone determine whether to place a bill on the committee’s
agenda for consideration or a vote. 104 This means that minority party members
of a committee can rarely obtain consideration of the bills they support because
all committees are chaired by members of the majority party. It also means that
the Speaker and Majority Leader are able to control fully which bills reach a vote
in committee through the committee chairs.
Moreover, most legislative chambers allow motions on the floor of the full
chamber to discharge a bill from committee if a committee does not bring its consideration
of a bill to a vote and report the bill to the legislative calendar. 105 Such
discharge motions are intended to allow supporters of a bill to obtain consideration
by the full chamber despite the opposition or inaction of the committee to
which the bill was referred or its chair. In addition, the threat of such a motion, if
real, discourages legislators from sponsoring bills that they do not intend to pass. 106
In New York and in most states, such motions require a majority of members
elected in the chamber to vote for passage to succeed. 107 Seven chambers require
only one third of members to pass such a motion. 108 In the U.S. House of
Representatives, the motion to discharge is rarely used but still serves as a “safety
valve” against leadership domination and thus “looms much larger in public
debate . . . than would be expected from the infrequency of its successful use.” 109
In New York State, however, stringent limitations on the use of discharge motions
prevent consideration by the full Assembly or Senate of any legislation that does
not have the Speaker’s or Majority Leader’s support, respectively. Indeed, New
York is alone in placing six different restrictions of significance upon such motions:
■ Only Sponsor Can Move to Discharge a Bill. In both the Assembly and the
Senate, only the original sponsor of a bill is permitted to make a motion to
discharge the bill from a committee. 110 Our survey of legislative rules found
explicit procedures for discharging bills in 76 chambers. Only five of those 76
chambers (besides New York’s two chambers) require the concurrence of the
primary sponsor for such a motion to be made, and only in New Jersey’s two
chambers is the primary sponsor herself required to make the motion as in
New York. 111
■ 60-day Waiting Period Before Discharge Motions Allowed. New York’s
chambers prohibit any discharge motions to be made before a committee has
had at least 60 days to consider and report a bill. 112 Although 35 of the 76
chambers with express procedures impose waiting periods of some length
before such a motion can be made, New York’s required waiting period of 60
days is unusually long. Only five other chambers require a waiting period of
more than 21 days: both Massachusetts chambers (45 days; motions still can
NEW YORK STATE’S LEGISLATIVE PROCESS 15