I read in the Star Tribue Sunday edition today that state legislators are continuing to talk about the potential of a special session. I’m sure there are issues to examine and problems to resolve, but for those of us that must track state legislation, the end of the session hasn’t been all bad.
There’s time to take a breath and rest.
The organizing principles of how a bill becomes a law are not nearly as principled as you’d like to think. Bills can pop up out of the most unusual sources, and at the most unusual times. You think a particular bill is dead in committee, and then you see it being debated on the floor of the House. You might see the Senate poo-poo a bill on the floor of its Chamber, and then you see the bill come out the House-Senate Conference Committee and on its way to the Governor for signing.
The thing I have learned from my short few years watching the State Legislature is that you can never take your eye off the ball. If you are concerned about a bill, keep telling your legislator that you are concerned about – even after your legislator tells you the bill is “dead for this year” or that it “never got a hearing” or even that it “didn’t get out of committee”. Your legislator is not lying to you when he or she tell you these things. They may all be true. However, your legislator may not be party to some other legislator’s hopes, dreams and concerns about your bill.
It happens all the time.
