Conference Committee Process: Do Oklahoma Lawmakers Use It Or Abuse It?

[jamesrage]

I was watching this story on the news and I found it more appalling that our local politicians would vote for a bill that they didn't read and fully understand than someone inserting things into a bill at the last minute. How hard is it to say "No I can't vote yes for a bill that I do not have an adequate amount of time to read"?


http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=12777997
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Within the Oklahoma Legislature, rank and file lawmakers call it 'a horrible way to govern.' Even those in leadership roles admit reform of this process would be welcome.

The conference committee process is a tool that clearly can be used for legitimate ends -- reconciling differences between House and Senate versions of the same bill, most notably.

But there is another use -- or, perhaps, 'abuse' -- that has recently caught the attention of, not only certain law-makers, but also law enforcement.

Oklahoma District Attorney David Prater is investigating the allegation that a small group of lawmakers conspired to pass legislation that would potentially benefit them personally. Prater believes the conference committee process is what allowed these lawmakers to get the legislation approved.

Two bills approved on May 28 (the final day of the regular session), provided for the creation a new $80,000 job in the State Medical Examiner's office. One of the lawmakers under investigation, Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, was allegedly promised that position, if she would agree not to seek re-election. Another lawmaker, Rep. Mike Christian, R-Oklahoma City, was allegedly going to abandon his House seat in order to run for Leftwich's vacated seat. Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, is believed to have devised the alleged scheme and led the effort to insert the necessary language into the bills. (The bills were both vetoed by the Governor, who said both the position and the expense could not be justified.)

All three lawmakers have asserted their innocence in the matter. But, innocent or not, the question is -- how did the legislation get through, without any colleagues raising an objection?

"I can entirely see how something like that passed and folks didn't think a thing of it," said Rep. Ryan Kiesel, D-Seminole.

Representative Kiesel, who is voluntarily stepping down from his seat after three terms, says it's hard to monitor the content of bills that get assigned to a conference committee, as these did. A big reason, he says, is because most of the committees don't actually meet.


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"The conference committee process totally circumvents the idea of a legislative body," complained Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City.

Rep. Reynolds, a self-proclaimed watchdog for the taxpayer, calls it "absolute insanity," especially the last two days of session. Because that's when the rule requiring a 24-hour wait before bills can be considered goes away, and the conference committee substitutes start coming fast and furious.

"And you have five minutes to read a 100-page bill, as if anybody does," Reynolds said, "and [the bills' authors] just say, 'trust me!'...and we vote on them and that's where the worst legislation occurs."

In the final week of session this year, the House took up 183 bills, compared to 50, 22, and 35, respectively, in the three weeks prior. They handled 86 bills the last two days alone.

One of those, House Bill 2359, Reynolds says, is a perfect example of how the system fails the citizens it's intended to serve. HB 2359 was first introduced in February as a simple 2-page bill to clarify language surrounding the teacher retirement fund. It ended up in a conference committee where, eventually, it was completely rewritten, re-emerging as a lengthy, $80 million sales tax measure. Reynolds says he and his colleagues should have been given ample time to read and debate such a bill.

"The first time it was ever published publicly was, I think, 1:45 in the afternoon on the last day of session," said a disbelieving Reynolds. "A 100-page bill -- never seen the language before, brought up for a vote an hour later, brought up for a vote in the Senate thirteen minutes before they had to legally adjourn."

The bill passed both houses easily.

Reynolds and other lawmakers say the current system makes it virtually impossible for even the most diligent among them to cast informed votes at the end of session.

"I have three masters degrees," stated Rep. Lucky Lamons, D-Tulsa. "I cannot comprehend all that information; I'm educated, but it comes too fast."

But Prater, the Oklahoma County D.A., says that's exactly what some at the Capitol count on. He says a lobbyist confronted him recently and told him his investigation threatened to put an end to the "chaos" that he and other lobbyists rely on to get certain language into law. The lobbyist called the lack of transparency in the conference committee process a good thing.