COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN

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COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN'S HANDBOOK

CHAPTER IV

STANDING COMMITTEE OPERATIONS

1. PLANNING AND PRIORITIZING COMMITTEE WORKLOAD.

The primary duty of standing committees is to receive, consider and report on bills referred by the full body of the House or Senate.

In consultation with the leadership, it is the committee chairman's responsibility to plan the committee's work to ensure that significant bills assigned to the committee are given adequate consideration.

(a) The Need to Prioritize. Due to constitutional limitations on how long the legislature may remain in session, committees often find there is insufficient time to give full consideration to all bills assigned. Time constraints also result in most committees being unable to follow a strict "first in - first considered" policy if adequate time is to be reserved for the most important pieces of legislation. It is therefore important for the chairman to continuously assess and prioritize the committee's workload to ensure that the majority of the committee's time and effort is concentrated on the most significant issues. Chairmen should be especially cautious of the tendency early in the session to devote an inordinate amount of time to "working" and reporting out relatively insignificant bills merely because they received an early assignment to the committee.

"Nonessential items can consume a disproportionate amount of valuable committee time unless techniques are used to ensure that priority matters are taken up in a timely manner and noncontroversial matters are handled expeditiously. If chairmen do not utilize the early days of the session effectively, committee work is compressed into shorter and shorter time periods. Important but complex bills may be lost in the build up and imperfect or unnecessary bills can potentially move to the floor, contributing to end-of-session logjams... Primary responsibility for avoiding these problems rests with the chairman." A Chairman's Guide to Effective Committee Management (NCSL 1981). See Appendix 5.

(b) Status Boards.

To help keep track of the "big picture," a number of committees employ status boards in the committee rooms to provide a graphic display of all bills included in the committee's current workload. Tentative dates for hearing and "working" bills are revised as additional bills are assigned to the committee and as priorities are adjusted.

As noted in A Chairman's Guide to Effective Committee Management (NCSL 1981, see Appendix 5), the NCSL Legislative Management Committee has drawn up a list of suggestions for chairmen on scheduling. These include the following tips:

(i) Schedule several noncontroversial housekeeping bills together at the start to get the meeting moving, and then schedule a few controversial bills or bills requiring more time;

(ii) Schedule similar subject-matter bills together. (The grouping of similar bills together may eliminate duplicative testimony, allow for streamlined briefings and facilitate the preparation of amendments.)

(iii) Schedule controversial bills together and schedule noncontroversial bills together.

In scheduling the committee's work it is, of course, important for the chairman to keep in mind important dates on the legislature's calendar, especially final dates for committee action on bills.

2. COMMITTEE'S ROLE IN "SCREENING" LEGISLATION.

Given the constitutional limits on length of sessions, it is an inescapable fact that there is insufficient time for all introduced bills to progress to third reading and be given final consideration by the full House or Senate. In fact, history reflects that on average, only 30% of introduced bills become law. For the current system to continue functioning, some bills must necessarily "die" somewhere along the way while more significant pieces of legislation are advanced.

Despite this need, however, there has been a noticeable trend in recent years for standing committees to report bills out of committee so that "the whole body can decide" whether the bill should advance. Whether this trend results from a well-intentioned desire that bills be given a "fair hearing" or simply an unwillingness to make hard political decisions, the result is that more and more bills are being advanced in the system thereby creating a bottleneck on general file and requiring the full body of the House and Senate to spend valuable time "weeding out" legislation in committee of the whole.

Each committee chairman should ensure that his standing committee fulfills its primary "screening" role in the legislative process, which may mean that some bills "die" in committee or are reported out with a clear "do not pass" recommendation.

3. COMMITTEE ACTION ON ASSIGNED BILLS.

Chairmen should refer to the Wyoming Manual of Legislative Procedures for a general overview of procedures for standing committee action on bills.

(a) Bill Security. A committee, or even the full body of the House or Senate, can act upon a bill only when it has the bill in its possession. A bill assigned to a committee and subsequently reported out (or recalled from the committee) must be physically delivered to the chief clerk before it is subject to further action. Keeping track of the physical location of the original bill and its bill jacket is therefore of such significance that committee chairmen are asked to receipt for the bill when it is delivered to them and to provide strict security for the bill in the committee room.

(b) Scheduling Committee Meetings. The majority floor leader in the House and Senate will provide the committee chairmen with a general schedule for the daily convening and adjourning of the House and Senate which will identify blocks of time available for committee meetings.

In determining which, and how many bills, are to be considered at any particular committee meeting the chairman will need to consider:

(i) The relative priority of the bill. The chairman should constantly review the committee's workload to ensure that bills having the highest priority are given early and thorough consideration by the committee;

(ii) Degree of complexity and controversy. The committee may need to devote all of the time available at one or more of its meetings to the exclusive consideration of a single complicated bill while in other cases numerous simple or "related" bills can be scheduled for consideration at a single meeting. The chairman should also take into account the degree of controversy surrounding the bill and the anticipated number of witnesses;

(iii) In scheduling bills for consideration, the chairman should try to accommodate persons who have to travel long distances to testify;

(iv) In the case of public hearings on highly controversial bills, the chairman should consider whether to arrange in advance for a larger meeting room and whether there might be a need for additional security. In these instances, the LSO should be contacted for assistance.

(c) Notice of Meetings. Notice of standing committee meetings are prepared by the committee secretary under the direction of the chairman and are published daily in the House and Senate Calendars and posted in conspicuous locations in the vicinity of the House and Senate chambers. Notices should be posted as soon as possible after hearings are scheduled. Notices must be posted by 3:00 p.m. on the day preceding the day of the meeting (see Senate Rule 10-3b and House Rule 9-2b.) Meeting schedules are also announced by the committee chairmen each afternoon before adjournment of the House and Senate.

(d) Appearance of Bill Sponsor at Meeting. It is the normal practice for the committee secretary to provide special written notice to each bill sponsor whose bill will be up for consideration at a committee meeting. If a sponsor cannot attend the scheduled meeting, he is responsible for arranging for another legislator to explain the bill or notifying the standing committee chairman to request a postponement of the hearing on his bill.

(e) Presentation of Testimony. The normal practice is for the sponsor to speak first and present a summary of each provision in his bill. The sponsor may ask the constituent or lobbyist who suggested the legislation to provide additional information and to answer questions. If a written statement is presented, sufficient copies should be provided so that each committee member and the committee secretary receives a copy. Following presentation by the sponsor and his witnesses, the chairman will normally allow time for others wishing to provide testimony and for committee questions. Often, the committee will not begin "working" the bill (discussing amendments) or vote on a final recommendation until a subsequent meeting.

A brochure is available in the LSO which provides general information to members of the public explaining how to make a presentation to a legislative committee.

(f) "Working" the Bill. "Working" a bill assigned to committee involves the committee's consideration of the substantive policy provisions of the bill as well as a careful review of its practical and technical aspects. Before going to the effort of "working" a bill, some committees take a straw poll to determine whether the committee is interested in passing the bill out of committee. LSO staff is available for consultation when a committee is "working" a difficult bill.

Committees should not depend upon committee of the whole action to "clean up" bills which have not been thoroughly reviewed and worked on by the standing committee.

(g) Substitute Bills. In the event the standing committee has proposed a great number of complex amendments to a bill, the chairman may wish to discuss with the House or Senate attorney the possibility of preparing a substitute bill which incorporates the committee's amendments. Only LSO can prepare substitute bills in draft or final form for consideration. There is a way by which a standing committee can review a "draft" substitute bill before making a final decision. This "draft" is not official and not automatically available to the public. Considering the use of a substitute bill should be discussed with LSO staff in the respective attorney's offices. This alternative should be used sparingly due to: (1) the amount of staff time required; and (2) the difficulty interested individuals might encounter in trying to determine the exact changes proposed by the standing committee when the amendments have already been merged into the language of the substitute bill.

(h) Motion to Re-refer. A motion to re-refer a bill to another committee is appropriate when:

(i) The first committee determines the bill involves a subject more appropriately within the general jurisdiction of another committee; or

(ii) The bill contains an appropriation and is subject to re-referral to the appropriations committee under Senate Rule 9-4 or House Rule 8-5.

(i) Preparation of Standing Committee Report. See the "Standing Committee Report Checklist" in the Wyoming Manual of Legislative Procedures.

The standing committee report is prepared by the committee secretary under the direction of the chairman. The report is generally prepared from the secretary's notes of the committee's discussion and is seldom presented to the committee for review before a final vote is taken on the bill. It is therefore important that the chairman carefully review the report to ensure that it accurately reflects the committee's action. Following return of the report, the House or Senate Attorney may make additional technical corrections to the standing committee amendment before it is distributed to and voted upon by the full body. The chairman should carefully review such corrections to ensure that they do not alter the committee's intent.

4. STANDING COMMITTEE MINUTES.

For a number of years it was the custom for committee secretaries to prepare minutes of all standing committee meetings. These minutes ranged in detail from a bare recitation of the committee's action on a bill (duplicating information contained in the standing committee report) to near verbatim transcripts of the testimony and discussion at committee meetings. Regardless of style, however, no provision existed for preservation of these minutes as permanent records of the legislature and they were typically discarded at the end of each legislative session.

Following the 1992 session, the Management Council reviewed various alternatives relating to preparation and retention of standing committee minutes and finally determined that any formal requirement for keeping such minutes should be eliminated.

Whether the secretary for a standing committee will be required to keep minutes relating to some or all bills assigned to the committee, and the format for those minutes if required, is now a matter solely for the discretion of the committee chairman. See Joint Rule 16-1 regarding official standing committee records.

5. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORT.

The Management Council has approved the following procedures for preparation of standing committee reports:

(A) In all cases where there is a committee amendment, the report form will simply state "See Attachment A";

(B) The secretary will mark up by hand (cut and paste if necessary) a copy of the bill to read as the committee wanted it in accordance with their amendments. Additions to and deletions from the bill will be made so as to be clear to the attorneys;

(D) The chairman signs the report and submits it to the front desk along with the marked up bill;

(E) The chief clerk sends the report and the marked up bill to the attorneys who prepare the "Schedule A" amendment in proper form and return it to the front desk where it is read in;

(F) The marked up copy remains in the attorney's office; the Attachment A prepared by the attorneys is the official version of the amendment placed in the jacket.

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