Far from comprising the musty annals of legislative mechanics, advocates assert these are the essential tools needed for real popular representation. Smith's arrival puts the senate in Democratic hands after four decades of Republican control. Good government groups – including NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice, which last week issued a report, Still Broken, on Albany's continuing "dysfunction" – are eager for the senate, under Smith’s leadership, to perform what they consider a long-overdue makeover on the body's procedural rules.
The Republican leadership says it's open to change. Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, said through an aide he welcomes wide-ranging reforms to empower rank-and-file lawmakers of the 62-member body. But Skelos only took the Senate reins last summer, after longtime party boss Joseph Bruno retired, and last week Bruno declined to comment on the matter.
Skelos spokesman Scott Reif attributed responsibility for lack of reform to both political parties. But operational rules reform isn't the most important task facing the senate, he says: "There are a number of pressing needs for the people of New York state, such as tax relief." Nonetheless, Reif said Republican leaders also wanted to give committee chairs more power over legislation, allow rank-and-file legislators to initiate floor votes on bills, and reduce the ability of leadership from either party to stymie debate by bottlenecking bills in committees.
Smith announced passage of reforms including:
• Creation of a new Temporary Senate Committee on Rules and Administration Reform. The Committee's goal would be to allow greater authority for individual members and expand information provided to the public. It will include nine members, to be co-chaired by Democratic Senator David Valesky and Republican Senator John Bonacic, and will make a proposal no later than April 13 "to fully usher in a new era in Albany."
• Allowing for open bill sponsorship for any member who chooses to support a piece of legislation, unlike current practice whereby minority party members could be excluded from signing onto majority-sponsored bills.
• Changing the process by which bills are moved from committee to the full senate. Such "motions to discharge" will now require recorded votes, and allow for debate times and procedures parallel to those used for all other bills. This reform would empower lawmakers to push legislation that lacks the support of party leadership, but may be popular among rank-and-file legislators.
In accepting the leadership position last week, Smith – whose introduction of similar reforms in 2007 failed along party lines – urged an overhaul of senate rules that have concentrated power in the hands of party leadership.
“Imagine a fully functioning legislature where senate committees function like real committees, where members debate and even amend bills in the committee, where members of the majority and minority introduce bills onto the floor for a vote, and those votes are recorded. And, where budget conference committees and individual members are able to negotiate final bills with their assembly counterparts,” he said in his acceptance speech.
