THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN ...

78 THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS: AN EVALUATION AND BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM
New York Legislative Digest. For all major bills during this period, the transcripts
from both chambers on the dates of passages were also analyzed.
■ Messages of Necessity. Information on messages of necessity for the 308
major bills passed from 1997 through 2001 was drawn from the Legislative
Bill Drafting Commission, STATE OF NEW YORK LEGISLATIVE DIGEST (1997-
2001).
■ Committee Votes. To understand how standing committees choose to vote
on bills referred to them, we examined the complete voting records of the
Assembly’s Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation,
Commerce and Industry for the years 1997-2001 obtained from the
Assembly Public Information Office.
■ Historical Survey. The authors conducted historical research on legislative
procedures and practices from 1777 to the present, but focused on the period
since 1900. Sources included proceedings of the constitutional conventions,
contemporary press accounts, contemporary studies of the New York
State legislature and commission reports, secondary historical works on New
York history, and political science literature on legislative procedure.
■ Legislative Rules Analysis. Using the most recent versions of state legislative
rules available on-line, the authors analyzed their treatment of specific steps
in the legislative process, including limitations on debate, discharge of bills
from committee, committee hearings, voting, and Rules Committees. The
rules of all 99 legislative chambers were analyzed.
■ Telephone Survey on Frequency of Debate and Voting Procedures.
Interviews were conducted by telephone in November and December 2003
with the agencies listed in Appendix B. A copy of the questionnaire used is
also included therein. At least one source was interviewed from each state,
where possible from a non-partisan research or library service associated with
the legislature and devoted to maintaining the state’s legislative records in
order to learn the frequency of debate on the floor, roll calls, and attendance
at votes on the floor. Through this survey, we obtained complete information
concerning 94 of the 97 state legislative chambers outside New York.
■ Interviews with Legislators and Staff. In addition to the interviews conducted
in connection with the committee analysis discussed above, numerous sitting
members of the Assembly and Senate and members of their staff were
interviewed concerning various legislative procedures; these interviews were
conducted on the condition of anonymity to ensure that their responses
would be candid and that they would not face any negative consequences
from their colleagues or constituents. Accordingly, citations to these interviews
have been coded with alphabetical identifiers in the footnotes.