What most don’t know is that legislators at all levels actually take the power of debate that we constituents give them, walk into their chambers and give it away to the legislator who runs the chamber, by voting for rules that allow the chamber leader to kill bills through multiple mechanisms, without anyone having to vote on them. This allows lobbyists to intimidate an entire chamber through a single legislator, while all other legislators hide behind that chamber leader. I propose that all chambers make the following rules:
- Committee chairmen serve at the pleasure of their committees, not chamber leader’s.
- All bill actions, including procedural objections, are decided by the entire committee/chamber by record vote.
- All bills are filed with a discharge petition which, when signed by 40% of a committee or the entier chamber, require the bill to have a hearing.