Must Be Nice
It would be easy & cheap to say that “lawmakers are just trying to do what’s best for tax payers” in regards to their sluggishness, and the constant dragging of feet on every real issue out there. It’s Conference Committee Week here in Indianapolis, and I’m going to bore you with the prerequisite civic lesson.
In playing with Paint, I made the lesson into a graphic but here’s a quick run down (because this makes me feel smart when I get to be all “look at my knowledge!”):
1) A Bill is introduced in the House of Representatives
2) Put in a committee, and eventually o.k.’d by the committee
3) Voted on by the full House and passed to Senate
4) Put in a Senate committee, and eventually o.k.’d by the committee
5) Voted on by the Senate, by now, the bill is not completely the same one from the House
6) The bill is returned to the House
a. where either the original author is okay with the changes (in that case, everyone votes just 1 more time and off to the governor) OR
b. A dissent is filed and we’re off to the races! House and Senate appoint “conferees” and “advisors”
7) Conference Committee, giving either 1 or 2 hours notice before meetings on how to reconcile the differences, they can meet for one, two, three…really however long they feel like meeting until they all agree and produce a report.
8) That report is sent to the Rules committee of each body (House & Senate) where it must be passed
9) Then finally, it’s in front of the bodies where they vote, and if everything passes onto the governor
Here’s my complaint (and yes, I know that I would complain if the sun wasn’t out…which it is so shut-it!): stop fiddle-farting around and get some da**ed laws passed. I’m sorry, but the session is SUPPOSED to end on Friday…and it’s now nearing the end of Wednesday. And-yes-I-know they can ‘suspend rules’ at the end, and everyone knows that’s what the House is going to come tomorrow…but LORD, no one wants a pecial-Say ession-Say. And it’s not like they couldn’t, you know, do something at these meetings, but I sat in on one, about HB1107, here’s what was going on.
First off, Sen. Drozda who introduced the part of the bill mandating fetal development in high school (which confused me because I thought we learned that…every year after 5th grade) wasn’t there. It’s that part of the bill that everyone has issues with. So they met and discussed deleting a word, and changing another part because the Department of Education said it should be changed, and then they said “welp…gotta take this back to our caucus, ttyl! Peace out my bffs!”
Why does it make me crazy, well for one they had the recommendation from the DoE on something that was “you have to change materials to standards, since we don’t provide materials”. That should be a no brainer, oh okay (!), that’s a change that no one should have an issue with. Now, deleting a word (it was diversity or diverse, btw) I suppose could be an issue, but can’t they just discuss it there instead of running back to caucus? Not that it matters, this bill is D-o-A, just frustrates me.
I wish I got paid for jacking around and chit-chatting for a whole week, heck! They barely work on Monday/Friday during the session, and blah blah blah it’s supposed to not be their “full-time job” but if my ass is paying them, I want them to do STUFF. It’s like that YouTube video of the guy sleeping instead of installing cable, that’s not why we pay you. Let me be brutally frank right here, the session is only about ONE thing: Property Taxes and everyone knows it . Let’s just throw out every other non-passed bill (sorry, but sucks to be you other bills) and focus our attention on it, otherwise all we’ll hear for the next eight months will be “they didn’t do anything, and my bill is still too high!”.
I’m not mandating voting out incumbents, as it’s not their fault (I’m looking at you property tax banshees!) in all honesty. The system was flawed and old and eventually would bite us in the butt. I only wish that I (a) didn’t work at a law firm in the lobbying area, so (b) I could put on a sandwhich board that said “buckle down and get some real laws passed”.
At least it would be a step up from my Sarcasm Sign (I got addicted to paint!) I one day will have made to flash at people.
In playing with Paint, I made the lesson into a graphic but here’s a quick run down (because this makes me feel smart when I get to be all “look at my knowledge!”):
1) A Bill is introduced in the House of Representatives
2) Put in a committee, and eventually o.k.’d by the committee
3) Voted on by the full House and passed to Senate
4) Put in a Senate committee, and eventually o.k.’d by the committee
5) Voted on by the Senate, by now, the bill is not completely the same one from the House
6) The bill is returned to the House
a. where either the original author is okay with the changes (in that case, everyone votes just 1 more time and off to the governor) OR
b. A dissent is filed and we’re off to the races! House and Senate appoint “conferees” and “advisors”
7) Conference Committee, giving either 1 or 2 hours notice before meetings on how to reconcile the differences, they can meet for one, two, three…really however long they feel like meeting until they all agree and produce a report.
8) That report is sent to the Rules committee of each body (House & Senate) where it must be passed
9) Then finally, it’s in front of the bodies where they vote, and if everything passes onto the governor
Here’s my complaint (and yes, I know that I would complain if the sun wasn’t out…which it is so shut-it!): stop fiddle-farting around and get some da**ed laws passed. I’m sorry, but the session is SUPPOSED to end on Friday…and it’s now nearing the end of Wednesday. And-yes-I-know they can ‘suspend rules’ at the end, and everyone knows that’s what the House is going to come tomorrow…but LORD, no one wants a pecial-Say ession-Say. And it’s not like they couldn’t, you know, do something at these meetings, but I sat in on one, about HB1107, here’s what was going on.
First off, Sen. Drozda who introduced the part of the bill mandating fetal development in high school (which confused me because I thought we learned that…every year after 5th grade) wasn’t there. It’s that part of the bill that everyone has issues with. So they met and discussed deleting a word, and changing another part because the Department of Education said it should be changed, and then they said “welp…gotta take this back to our caucus, ttyl! Peace out my bffs!”
Why does it make me crazy, well for one they had the recommendation from the DoE on something that was “you have to change materials to standards, since we don’t provide materials”. That should be a no brainer, oh okay (!), that’s a change that no one should have an issue with. Now, deleting a word (it was diversity or diverse, btw) I suppose could be an issue, but can’t they just discuss it there instead of running back to caucus? Not that it matters, this bill is D-o-A, just frustrates me.
I wish I got paid for jacking around and chit-chatting for a whole week, heck! They barely work on Monday/Friday during the session, and blah blah blah it’s supposed to not be their “full-time job” but if my ass is paying them, I want them to do STUFF. It’s like that YouTube video of the guy sleeping instead of installing cable, that’s not why we pay you. Let me be brutally frank right here, the session is only about ONE thing: Property Taxes and everyone knows it . Let’s just throw out every other non-passed bill (sorry, but sucks to be you other bills) and focus our attention on it, otherwise all we’ll hear for the next eight months will be “they didn’t do anything, and my bill is still too high!”.
I’m not mandating voting out incumbents, as it’s not their fault (I’m looking at you property tax banshees!) in all honesty. The system was flawed and old and eventually would bite us in the butt. I only wish that I (a) didn’t work at a law firm in the lobbying area, so (b) I could put on a sandwhich board that said “buckle down and get some real laws passed”.
At least it would be a step up from my Sarcasm Sign (I got addicted to paint!) I one day will have made to flash at people.
