THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

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18 THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN EVALUATION AND BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM FIGURE 6 such motion has passed during this century.” 123 Unless these numerous restrictions on discharge motions are relaxed, the same comment will likely apply with equal force to the present century as well. Because such motions do not provide an independent mechanism to obtain consideration of a bill by the full Senate or Assembly, such consideration depends upon action by the Majority Leader or Speaker. ■■■OPTIONS FOR COMMITTEE VOTES If the chair of a standing committee allows a bill to reach a committee vote, committees in New York have several options. In the Assembly, standing committees have four options in addition to rejecting a bill if a vote is taken: A standing committee may report any bill, either with or without amendments, or it may report adversely to the same or it may report that a bill has been held for further action and/or study. 124 The Senate’s rules, however, do not provide standing committees with an option to report a bill with amendments; they can only report a bill favorably without amendments or report it adversely. 125 As a result, the Senate committees are deprived of a legislative tool – approval with amendments – that encourages meaningful committee consideration of a bill and is available to 93 out of 99 chambers in the country. 126 Because it is impossible for the members of a committee (or any other members) to force a committee to vote on a bill without the chair’s (and, thus, the Speaker’s or Majority Leader’s) assent, bills are virtually never defeated outright on a committee vote. The Assembly’s Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry, for example, voted on 592 bills from 1997 through 2002 and defeated only one bill. 127 See Fig. 6. Occasionally, the committee and the Speaker or Majority Leader will stage a recommendation by the chair NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, JOB CREATION, COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ■ VOTE OUTCOMES 1997-2002 Favorable Favorable Favorable With Referral Held for Year Without Amendment With Amendment to Another Committee Defeated Consideration Total 1997 13 0 86 0 13 112 1998 3 0 90 0 25 118 1999 10 0 89 0 0 99 2000 0 0 60 0 40 100 2001 5 0 62 1 0 68 2002 8 0 45 0 42 95 Total 39 0 432 1 120 592
that is overturned; this allows the chair to maintain support publicly for the bill, while obtaining the outcome desired by the leader. 128 Despite the availability of the option to report a bill favorably but with proposed amendments, Assembly committees do not generally take advantage of this option. The Economic Development Committee, for example, did not do so in its consideration of any of the 592 bills voted on from 1997 through 2002. The committees simply do not engage in the kind of debate and mark-ups necessary to produce amendments to the bills as a committee. Moreover, most votes are unanimous. In the Assembly, 83% of committee votes on major legislation passed from 1997 through 2001 for which data were available were unanimous. In the Senate, 90% of such votes were unanimous from 1998 through 2001. See Fig. 7. 129 It is plain from these figures that committee members overwhelmingly follow the lead of the committee chair in their votes, either literally by allowing the chair to vote their proxies, as routinely occurs in the Senate, or by simply voting with the chair as a matter of course. Rank-and-file members do not have significant influence over the committee’s ultimate consideration of a bill. FIGURE 7 NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE ■ UNANIMITY OF COMMITTEE VOTES ON MAJOR LEGISLATION, 1997–2001 NEW YORK STATE’S LEGISLATIVE PROCESS 19 SENATE Year Unanimous Not Unanimous Total Bills for Which Data Available* % Unanimous 1998 41 3 44 93% 1999 56 5 61 92% 2000 58 6 64 91% 2001 40 8 48 83% Total 195 22 217 90% ASSEMBLY Year Unanimous Not Unanimous Total Bills* % Unanimous 1997 30 8 38 79% 1998 36 10 46 78% 1999 60 10 70 86% 2000 64 15 79 81% 2001 44 5 49 90% Total 234 48 282 83% * No data were available for Senate committee votes in 1997.
Page 1: THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROC
Page 4 and 5: The Brennan Center for Justice at N
Page 7: CONTENTS Executive Summary. . . . .
Page 10 and 11: viii THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE
Page 12 and 13: x THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PR
Page 14 and 15: xii THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE
Page 16 and 17: xiv THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE
Page 19 and 20: INTRODUCTION It has become somethin
Page 21 and 22: ■ Accessibility. An accessible le
Page 23 and 24: NEW YORK STATE’S LEGISLATIVE PROC
Page 25 and 26: ■■ REFERRAL OF LEGISLATION TO C
Page 27 and 28: legislation. As a result, the final
Page 29 and 30: ■■ COMMITTEE REPORTS Legislatur
Page 31 and 32: usually adopted by the full committ
Page 33 and 34: Neither of New York State’s two c
Page 35: FIGURE 5 RESTRICTIONS ON MOTIONS TO
Page 39 and 40: of these committees. 142 In 1971, a
Page 41 and 42: into, a bill because the committee
Page 43 and 44: Additional research is necessary to
Page 45 and 46: Finally, analysis of the outcomes o
Page 47 and 48: maybe 20 staff people saw it before
Page 49 and 50: Few other states rely so heavily up
Page 51 and 52: Both the fast roll call (also known
Page 53 and 54: that the leaders exert over which b
Page 55 and 56: Nor is this pattern a recent phenom
Page 57 and 58: A COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF NEW YORK
Page 59 and 60: State A COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF LEGI
Page 61 and 62: THE IMPACT OF NEW YORK’S DYSFUNCT
Page 69 and 70: the people of New York State by acq
Page 71 and 72: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFORM The refo
Page 73 and 74: ■ Motions to discharge a bill may
Page 75 and 76: ENDNOTES 1 See, e.g., Albany’s Ad
Page 77 and 78: the New York State Legislature was
Page 79 and 80: 41 MAJOR LEGISLATION COMMITTEE ANAL
Page 81 and 82: Fin. Network, Inc., 830 A.2d 711, 7
Page 83 and 84: ers, the committee chair and majori
Page 85 and 86: 90-day session and the 105th day of
Page 87 and 88:
at 244, 547-48. 148 Aubrey Jewett,
Page 89 and 90:
175 MAJOR LEGISLATION ANALYSIS 1997
Page 91 and 92:
210 S4422B passed the Senate on Jun
Page 93 and 94:
voted from 1997 through 2001 were a
Page 95 and 96:
METHODOLOGY The research for this r
Page 97 and 98:
■ Vote Outcomes for All Bills 199
Page 99 and 100:
A9291-A, S6292-A S7833, A1103 A7162
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TELEPHONE SURVEY RESPONDENTS Alabam
Page 103 and 104:
Montana Legislative Services Divisi
Page 105 and 106:
BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE BOARD OF
Page 108:
BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE AT NYU S
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