Massachusetts Senate makes a stab at transparency
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Still, the Senate changes would represent some progress.
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In hopes of making the body operate more efficiently, it is proposing to move up the date for joint committees to report out legislation — known as Joint Rule 10 — from its current date of early February of the second year of the session to the first Wednesday of December in the first year. Perhaps that would prevent so many bills from piling up at the end of the session.
'We've heard from many members who want to be able to vote and record their vote in a formal session,' Senator Joan Lovely, chair of the Temporary Senate Committee on Rules, said at a briefing last week.
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The Senate Ways and Means Committee would be directed to prepare bill summaries in 'plain English,' as Senator Paul Feeney put it, for all legislation reported out favorably from committee and make those available online.
And even if the House doesn't agree, the Senate rules for joint committees propose making all senators' votes on bills public along with any in-person or written testimony received by senators.
Now wouldn't it make some sense for the House to go along with that?
The Senate rules package is, of course, just a start. It is a far cry from the kind of sweeping, culture-altering reforms being proposed by the
The group has filed two pieces of legislation this year that truly would change the way the Legislature operates. One would establish
The other bill proposed by the coalition would get at the heart of the power of the House speaker and Senate president to control the members of their branches through awarding (or withholding) 'leadership' posts and the extra pay that comes with them.
By the group's calculation there are some 68 posts in the Senate and 94 in the House 'that can boost a legislator's annual pay by 10 percent to 120 percent above the base salary of $82,044.' Those positions range from bona fide jobs that may merit extra pay to sinecures with
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It is a thoughtful if rather complex approach to the problem that currently exists of the consolidation of power in the hands of a few.
The voting public has given every indication it's tired of the kind of closed-door lawmaking that has become the norm on Beacon Hill. The Senate rules package sends the right message — acknowledging the public demand for change and responding in a few incremental ways.
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