Utah
lawmaker Aaron Osmond calls for more transparency
Politics
» Proposal would end the secret “boxcar” bills that the public can’t read and
respond to until late in the session.
It could be the end of the line for the so-called boxcar if
state Sen. Aaron Osmond gets his way.
Osmond
wants to end the long-standing practice that lets legislators create a boxcar —
an empty bill file — and keep the contents secret until late in the legislative
session.
"My goal is to create an environment where the public and
those affected by legislation would have plenty of time to read and respond to
legislation before it hits the floor," Osmond said.
His bill would require every piece of legislation to have a
title and reasonably specific description of what the bill would do at least
two weeks before the start of the session.
If a lawmaker wants to open a new bill file after that, it would
require approval of two-thirds of the legislators in both the House and Senate.
"I think it’s important to understand why a legislator
couldn’t get a bill done before the session began. It puts more responsibility
on the legislator to get prepared before the session,"
By requiring the bills, or at least specific descriptions of the
bills, to be publicly available, Osmond said, legislators could have avoided
the HB477 debacle.
That was the legislation overhauling Utah’s public records laws,
restricting access to some material, that was made public in the last days of
the 2011 session and rushed through the House and Senate.
The public outcry over the bill prompted a special session to
repeal the law.
Appropriations bills, which are typically written and passed at
the end of the session, would not be subject to the mid-January deadline for
releasing descriptions of bills.
Osmond is also looking to change a practice in which bills can
quickly pass one body, then sit dormant until the end of the session when they
can be quickly amended and rushed through final passage.
His bill would only allow a bill to be "circled" —
essentially put on hold — for five days before it is sent back to the Rules
Committee.
"My goal is to create more transparency in the legislative
process to the benefit of the public … and prevent last-minute decision-making
on bills that remain circled until the end of the legislative session," he
said.
Maryann Martindale, executive director of the progressive group
Alliance For A Better Utah, said she is excited about Osmond’s proposal and
what it would mean for transparency of bills at the Legislature.
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