Legislators Only: Restricting Membership of Study Committees

Members of the public could be barred from serving on legislative study committees, with a new bipartisan proposal.

Sponsored by Rep. Laurie Harding (D-Lebanon), House Bill 190 follows a strong bipartisan House vote last year that approved a rule (not a formal law) limiting membership on House study committees to legislators. Previously, some study committees had invited public members, industry experts, or representatives from state agencies to serve.

Study committees are often an important step for bills that were not believed ready for a full vote, but were voted to be worthy of more consideration through a fact-finding process. A study committee offers lawmakers a chance to learn more about a specific proposal and for that group to make recommendations to relevant committees and the House or Senate.

This morning, the House Legislative Administration Committee holds a public hearing on HB 190. It would go a step further than last year’s House rule, requiring by law that any study committee would only be made up of legislators. It requires at least one House and Senate member on each study committee. Also, in a nod to the digital age, it requires the chairman of the study committee to file the final report electronically with the House and Senate clerks for posting on the legislative website.

Neither the House rules change of last year nor HB 190 would change the composition of the more than 200 statutory commissions or task forces established by state law, such as the Commission for Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women. For example, the Commission on Health Care Cost Containment, formed in 2010, calls for a wide range of appointments beyond House and Senate members. This is different than a committee formed to study one specific bill.

Last year’s House rule to limit membership on study committees itself came from a legislative study committee looking into sunset provisions for outdated commissions. The group was also considering how to have short-term committees run more efficiently, complete their duties on time and keep outside influence about specific recommendations to a minimum.

“They (the public) can have a seat at the table, but not a vote,” former House Speaker Terie Norelli (D-Portsmouth) told the Portsmouth Herald last year when the rules change came about. “The whole point is for elected officials to gather information. What’s good is healthy public input, but undue outside control of the outcome is not good.”

When the House rule was debated, some lawmakers gave testimony that they had served on legislative study committees where they felt lobbying pressure was too strong.

Not everyone was thrilled about the rules change last year, though. Former Rep. Jim Splaine (D-Portsmouth) called it “anti-democratic.” It led him to speak out against a rule change on the House floor for the first time in his decades of serving in the legislature. He told the Portsmouth Herald that legislative study committees need and should encourage the participation of unelected citizens.

>> The Legislative Administration Committee meeting holds a public hearing on HB 190 in the Legislative Office Building, Room 104, today, Jan. 25, at 10:30 a.m.

This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.

Posted by Hilary Niles on Jan 25 2011. Filed under committees, Government, Weekly Briefing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry