The first crossover deadline is this week, March 6. On this day, bills that have passed all three readings in each house will "cross over" to the other. Only those bills will be alive for the rest of the session, plus any carryover bills from last year that crossed-over last year. Remember, carryover bills are "sleeping," they can be revived at the same point in the process where they stopped moving the prior year.
It is not typical to move one of those carry-over bills; that will generally happen only when house B kills house A's crossed-over bill, and house A really wants that bill (I'll call it Bill 1). House A then can re-hear one of house B's bills from the last session that crossed over last year and then died in house A's committee (I'll call this Bill 2). In that hearing, house A will remove the original contents of the dead Bill 1 and put its language in the sleeping Bill 2. This procedure is known as "gut and substitute." If house A then passes the amended bill, it will cross over back to its original house, house B, as a Bill 2 shell with the Bill 1 contents.
Why bother? Won't house B just kill it again? Not necessarily. Bringing the bill back from the dead via gut and substitute is a serious sign from house A that it wants the bill. This is where votes get traded, and this is where you see why so many bills are given defective effective dates and blank appropriations. Now you have a sizeable pool of bills in conference. At this point, if one house wants to kill a bill, all it need to do is ... not appoint conferees. Or appoint conferees ... who then never set a time to meet. Now house A can say to house B, if you want your bill on X to get through conference, you need to pass Bill 2, the one we want.
This is where political leadership lies, and it happens in every state ... except Nebraska (and here's a thought question for you ... why not Nebraska?).
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3 comments:
Nebraska has single legislative house. Brought about by a Mr. Norris, the Depression, and it saves money. Appears that the Sunshine Law is a matter of business because once before the house it
is voted on. Pass or no pass-moves on or must come about again.
I learned that our gamesmanship in the Hawaii State Legislature doesn't make it any more efficient or applicable. But then no one in our neck of the woods has the passion of Mr. Norris either. :-)
web: www.nebraskalegislature.gov/web/public/history
Excellent research, Colleen. Doesn't the idea of a unicameral legislature make sense? Shouldn't the check be against the other branch, and not internally? There a lot of food for thought there.
The latest issue concerning "ceded lands" settlement and the State of Hawaii leads me to ask about the "first cross and the art of gut and substitute". Can this be used to revive the latest state of the "ceded issue" payments due kanaka maoli? I don't think Trustee Heen would have given up the ability to future options. I wonder if the wait and see attitude of our Legislators is a way to delay the rights of native Hawaiians.
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