An old adage maintains that no one should witness the making of a sausage or the making of a law.
That adage may not be as true in Georgia as in some other places.
In Georgia, politics at the state level are pretty straightforward and, unlike Washington, D.C., provide plenty of opportunity for public involvement.
That doesn’t mean Georgia’s process is simple. Georgia may be straightforward, but that does not mean the process is quick. Sometimes it actually takes several annual legislative sessions for a bill to make it to the governor’s desk.
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The General Assembly has 236 members of the House and Senate, making it the third largest state assembly in the United States. The Georgia General Assembly is also one of the oldest in the nation, having first met in official session in 1777.
Unlike the U.S. Congress, which meets year-round, the Georgia Constitution specifically calls for the General Assembly to only meet for 40 legislative (non-calendar) days starting on the second Monday in January in odd years. The Constitution makes the officers holders part-time public servants.
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Because of formal adjournments during the 40 meeting days, the session can run as late as
April of any given year.
Any member of either house can sponsor a bill; however, both Representatives and Senators try to get multiple sponsors to sign on or gain a positive nod from the local legislative delegation they belong to as a way for their bill to pick up steam.
Often, a bill begins life as a suggestion from interested citizens or from a lobbyist who is paid to push legislation that benefits a corporation, industry or group. Most legislators do not actually write the language of the bills they sponsor. Rather, they submit a basic idea to the Office of Legislative Council where a non-partisan attorney works out any legal kinks and finishes a final draft.
After the bill is read in its respective chamber, it is assigned to committee, and this is where the real action occurs. The committees discuss the bill and allow citizens, lobbyists and experts to testify. This is also the time that legislators work together to get support for their bills in both chambers.
While a bill is in committee, politicians practice “horse trading.” That is, they make deals behind the scenes, attempting to gain support for their bills by signing on to their colleagues bills to gain the maximum committee and, finally, floor votes.
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Sometimes, horse trading can lead to bills being merged into what is known as an omnibus bill. That is when bills are combined together into one document that might garner bipartisan support. The election reform bills from this legislative session are an example of several individual measures being pulled together into an omnibus bill.
Another example was the Judicial Reform Act of 2010, where Republicans favored a standalone bill that took away the statute of limitations on child molestation. Democrats opposed the bill, citing “unintended consequences.”
At the same time, Democrats favored other bills that pertained to changes in the state judicial system, some of which had only lukewarm Republican support.
As a result of the horse trading, Rep. Lee Anderson and former Rep. Ben Harbin, co-sponsors of the molestation bill, were able to roll several bills, including theirs, into an omnibus bill that passed with near unanimous support.
If discussion on a particular bill gets contentious, the measure may be referred to a subcommittee for revisions and then resubmitted to the overall committee.
The committee then has several actions it can take. Members may recommend the bill be passed, recommend it not be passed, recommend it be passed with changes and amendments or simply issue a report to the chamber with no recommendation.
The committee can also stall the negotiations and hold the bill after Crossover Day, which assures it will “die” in committee that session with no report filed.
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Crossover Day occurs on the 28th legislative day of the session. Crossover Day is important because, at that point, a bill has to pass its chamber and move over to the other chamber for it to see the light of day.
Once the bill is approved by one chamber, it is transferred to the other chamber for consideration, and it basically begins the whole committee process over again. This is known as the “transmission” period where members of the opposite chamber will make recommendations for changes or amendments.
If the chamber where the bill originated rejects the amended bill, the speaker of the house and president of the senate appoint three members of each chamber to form what is known as a Conference Committee.
If a resolution is agreed upon by the Conference Committee, a vote is held in both chambers which sends the bill onto the Governor for him to sign or veto.
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All bills must be voted on before Sine Die, the constitutionally mandated final day of the session. However, the politicking does not end with Sine Die.
After the session officially ends, legislators head home either to campaign on their successes or lick their wounds and prepare to try to resubmit their bill the following year.
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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