Legislature's Rush to Adjourn Can Leave Citizens Behind

By Damon Circosta
Published: July 14, 2010

RALEIGH - The early morning hours in downtown Raleigh are usually pretty serene. After the nightclubs close and before the office workers arrive, our state capital is still and quiet.

Last week was an exception. In the wee hours of Saturday morning our state representatives were engaged in a flurry of activity. Lobbyists hung around, staff tried to keep up and our legislators debated major pieces of legislation.

If it seems unusual that our public business was conducted before dawn, it is. But with coming elections and a desire to conclude business and go home, the final days of the legislative session turned into a sprint.

Exhausted legislators, a heavy flow of legislation and only a skeleton crew of journalists to keep an eye on it all can transform the last hours of session into silly season.

To be sure, many of the bills passed in the early morning hours are solid pieces of legislation. But every good bill presents an opportunity for shenanigans.

Last-second amendments and closed-door deals happen with greater frequency in the dark of night. The ability of the public to witness, let alone participate, in the public dialog is severely hampered when the pace is so quick and the hour is so late.

It isn’t uncommon for provisions almost wholly unrelated to pending legislation to sneak their way into a bill. Sometimes the text of legislation that has passed one chamber will be completely stripped of its contents to serve as a vehicle for some other purpose. This “gut-and-amend” process is a way to expedite favored projects when time is of the essence.

The frenzy that is the last day of session isn’t the product of individual legislators or even one political party. There is a systemic problem with how the General Assembly is set up.

Many of the rules under which our legislators operate were designed to accommodate a rural state with gentleman farmers taking a few weeks out of their lives to come to Raleigh and conduct the people’s business.

Things have changed. Legislative sessions can creep into campaign season and as politics has become more polarized, the final days of a session present an opportunity to pass bills to campaign on. Instead of weighing the merits of legislation, politicians are often more concerned about how the vote will look on a postcard that opponents might mail to constituents.

It’s impossible to go back to the more genteel days when there was some breathing room between governing season and campaigning season. But it is possible to make some changes that would result in a saner final legislative lap.

We ought to explore broadcasting the proceedings. The public should be able to look in on our government through either streaming Internet video or on television. It might not be must-see TV but at least we wouldn’t have to truck to Raleigh in the dead of the night to see what gets passed.

We also ought to reform the gut-and-amend process and take a serious look at ending those desk-side committee meetings where there is no opportunity for public input. Both of these procedures give legislation a fast track, but they can be abused to push through unpopular legislation.

The early morning session last week did no lasting damage to the republic and kudos to our public servants for working the long hours. But for the sake of our legislators and for the notion that any law they pass should be thoughtful and well reasoned, let’s find a better way to wind down the legislative session.