CA: You can't judge a bill by its title - 'Gut and Amend'

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 8/18/04 | Op/Ed

[NormsRevenge]

California students certainly won't find it in their civics textbooks. Nor will the subject surface in most conversations about the way legislation is enacted. That's because political insiders in Sacramento would just as soon keep quiet about the disturbingly common practice of gutting and amending a bill in order to slip it through at the very end of a legislative session.

It works like this: A lawmaker or a special-interest group wants to pass a controversial measure but the deadline has passed for the introduction of new bills. So, supporters grab a dead or dormant proposal, strip the original language, replace it with new wording about a completely different subject and – presto – a onetime school bill is now a measure to allow military personnel serving overseas to be married by proxy back home.

Sound far-fetched? SB 7, by Sens. John Burton, D-San Francisco, and Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, is being carried on behalf of a San Diegan and others on active duty who cannot get back home from Iraq to get married. Formerly, the bill dealt with the state's master plan for education and its author was Sen. Dede Alpert, D-San Diego.

California's shipping industry is miffed by a last-minute measure that would change its relationship with trucking companies. Thus a bill about state employee union contracts is finessed to include language that deals with the fees cargo companies can charge trucking firms for using their containers.

There's also a last-minute move afoot to transform a wages bill into a measure that provides mothers more leverage in child-custody disputes.

This mad scramble to recast measures during the chaotic last two weeks of the legislative session underscores the sausage-making aspect of far too many bills. It also explains why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to veto some of them.

The governor's legislative secretary, Richard Costigan, told the Los Angeles Times that so-called "gut and amend" bills on major issues may be scuttled by Schwarzenegger unless they deal with emergency matters or vital policy issues. Of course, the term vital can vary from one policy-maker to another.

What's more, the Schwarzenegger administration may find itself gutting and amending a few bills of its own before the legislative session comes to a close on Aug. 31. Should the governor come to terms on Indian gaming with any more tribes, for example, he will need to get the Legislature to approve them. That would involve cannibalizing yet another piece of legislation, this time for gaming purposes, so the governor can sign it into law.

Proponents of the legislative fast shuffle contend it is necessary to make government work for the common good. Sen. Burton cites last month's budget negotiations as a case in point. Had the governor and lawmakers not been able to gut and amend measures, Burton insists, the fiscal deal wouldn't have gotten done.

Fair enough. But what about those bills that are slipped through for political mischief or to reward contributors? They rate a swift Schwarzenegger veto.

[NormsRevenge]

FRom the OC Register..

More Gut and Amend editorializing..

Put an end to 'gut and amend'
Drastically changing bills at the last minute corrupts the state's legislative process

...excerpt...

'Gut and amend" sounds like a scene from one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's more violent action movies. It's actually a legislative ploy he wants to end.

In this ploy, a legislator takes an existing bill, guts the contents, then amends it with something on an entirely different topic. This allows the legislator to circumvent the usual cumbersome process of lengthy committee hearings and policy analyses for a new bill, since technically the bill is simply an amended version of an existing bill, even keeping the same number.

Under "gut and amend," bills are given almost no scrutiny, with few legislators having read them before a vote. And the citizens of California, who will be most affected by the bills, generally are unaware of what's going on and mostly powerless to work for or against such legislation in such a short time. This shenanigan usually happens near the end of session, when time is dear.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is indicating he won't put up with it. "Challenging a tradition favored by both parties and Capitol lobbyists, the Schwarzenegger administration is threatening to veto last-minute legislation that pops up before the end of the session in three weeks," reported the Aug. 13 Los Angeles Times. "[T]he governor's legislative secretary, Richard Costigan, said Schwarzenegger would look with skepticism at gut-and-amend bills on major issues 'unless it's necessary for the public good,' such as an emergency or a disaster."

If Legislators couldn't use this last-minute ploy, "they might actually read the bills" before voting on them, Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, told us. "The best you can say of legislatures in Washington, D.C., or Sacramento is that some of the legislators read some of the bills some of the time."

[Onelifetogive]

Proponents of the legislative fast shuffle contend it is necessary to make government work for the common good.

Or.....

just maybe....

they could change the rules and allow a bill to be proposed, created and voted on irrespective of time limits....

It's what they are doing anyway.....only, they are currently doing it deceptively.....