Test Drive for Annual Sessions
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Test Drive for Annual Sessions Oregon lawmakers, who meet every other year, decided to see how a more frequent approach would work. LORI CAIN/ STATESMAN JOURNAL BY PETER WONG Short of the governor summoning them Senate President Peter Courtney walks back to Salem for a special session, legisla- toward the Senate on the first day of the 74th o meet or not to meet? That’s the ques- tors dealt with budget matters between ses- session of the legislature, Jan. 8, 2007. tion these days in Oregon as lawmak- sions with a board consisting of the presiding ers wrestle with the issue of whether to officers, budget committee chairmen from Oregon is one of only six states where leg- go from biennial to yearly sessions. the previous session, and other legislators islators meet every other year. Kentucky used T The Oregon Legislative Assembly has met appointed by the leaders and ratified by the to be the seventh state, but voters approved every other year since statehood in 1859. chambers. a change to the constitution in 2000, and its The Emergency Board, as it is called, was General Assembly held its first annual ses- Peter Wong is a Capitol Bureau reporter for the Statesman increased this year from 17 to 20 members, sion in 2001. Arkansas voters will decide in Journal newspaper in Salem, Ore. He has covered Oregon but still is a small fraction of the 30 senators November if they want their General Assem- government and politics for three different newspapers in the past three decades, and is the dean of the Capitol press and 60 representatives. Other matters gener- bly to switch to annual sessions. corps. ally waited for the next biennial session. “Practically every state has gone to annual July/AUGUST 2008 State leGISlatuRES 33 A SPECIAL CHALLENGE he special session of Oregon’s T Legislative Assembly earlier this year did not come about with- out a fight. Normally, special sessions in Oregon result only from emer- gencies and are called on short notice. This year’s session, based on recommendations of a legislative review commission, was authorized by a resolution approved in Janu- ary 2007. Opponents challenged the constitutionality of the reso- lution in court, but on Jan. 28, an Oregon circuit court turned down the challenge. Oregon Senator Larry George brought the suit, arguing that spe- cial sessions can be called only for emergencies and that declaring an “emergency” through the 2007 resolution circumvented the con- stitution’s prescription for biennial sessions and amounted to a “sup- plemental” session. Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Jeff Merkley contended the court had no juris- diction in the case. Instead, they argued, the state constitution gave the legislature “the sole and unre- viewable discretion to determine whether a special session is war- ranted pursuant to its emergency powers.” LORI CAIN/STATESMAN JOURNAL The court disagreed and framed Members of the House applaud legislative staff workers on June 28, 2007, the last day of the session. the issue as “whether the Oregon legislature has properly complied sessions over the years. I think there’s a rea- time to get the state’s business done. with the provisions of the Oregon son for it,” says Alan Rosenthal, a professor “You cannot put together a budget for Ore- Constitution in calling itself into of public policy and political science at the gon and you cannot react to Oregon’s needs in this forthcoming special session.” Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers Uni- education, health, safety and natural resources if Judge Lipscomb determined versity. “A legislature simply has to be around we meet for just a few months every two years,” that the resolution by itself was on a regular basis in order to behave as a co- says Senate President Peter Courtney, the legis- not adequate to trigger the legisla- equal branch of government.” lature’s senior member, who in his 24 years has ture’s emergency powers, but that At least some Oregon lawmakers agree with served in 15 special sessions. a formal notice issued by leader- Rosenthal. ship on Jan. 18, 2008, provided the Lawmakers tried out an annual session this necessary legal backing. year, ahead of asking voters for a permanent The Oregon Supreme Court change. If passed during next year’s session, SENATE PRESIDENT on Feb. 2 agreed with the lower such a measure could appear on a special elec- PETER COURTNEY court’s decision and allowed the tion ballot in 2009 or, more likely, on the pri- session to take place. mary ballot in 2010. OREGON —Larry Morandi, NCSL The every-other-year schedule frustrates some lawmakers, who say they don’t have 34 State leGISlatuRES July/AUGUST 2008 CHANGE AHEAD TRIAL RUN ON TO THE VOTERS Calls for change have been building in The commission proposed a 120-day ses- recent years. Two legislative review commis- sion in 2007 and a 60-day session in 2008, sions in 1968 and 1974 urged a move toward but legislative leaders decided on a more tra- annual sessions. ditional, longer session in 2007. Both cham- Voters approved a constitutional change bers decided in advance not only on a date in 1976 that allows legislators to call for adjournment, but also deadlines for com- themselves into session in an emergency, mittee and chamber action on bills. They also although it had been invoked only once proposed a 2008 session of no more than 26 before this year. With no active campaign days. The 2007 session ended at 172 days, for or against it, voters rejected the last bal- one day before the self-imposed adjournment lot measure on annual sessions in 1990, but deadline. by a margin of just 5,000 of almost 600,000 “I was convinced that if we did not design votes cast. LEGISLATURES THAT this [2008] session down to the min- When Richard Devlin came to MEET BIENNIALLY ute, we would lose control,” Court- the Oregon House of Representa- ARKANSAS ney says. “Everyone thinks about the tives in 1997, he says the schedule MONTANA adjournment deadline. That’s the made it tough to gear up for the NEVADA last thing we should worry about.” session. NORTH DAKOTA The public deadlines, novel as “Each session was an entirely OREGON they were to Oregon legislators, new beginning. You did something TEXAS were less controversial than a cou- during that time, and then it all went ple of other restrictions in House hile Oregon lawmakers could pass a away for 18 months,” Devlin says. “At the rules for the session. measure and call for a special election start of each session, you had to go through a Unlike senators, who were allowed to W in 2009, the more likely route would be to whole process of looking at all the changes in introduce one bill each, representatives could put a question on the 2010 primary ballot. membership, thinking about what the issues not sponsor individual bills during the 2008 Leaders say no matter when a ballot mea- are, and starting to work together again.” session. House bills were channeled through sure is written and referred, they learned Four ballot measures on annual sessions policy committees or the rules committee. two things from the February session: passed the Senate since the 1990 rejection Unlike the Senate, the House could debate u At just 19 days, even shorter than the 26 by voters—a couple of them sponsored by substitutes for bills only if a majority of days scheduled, it was too short. Devlin, who had moved to the Senate and is the chamber signed onto them. The Oregon u With 109 bills divided roughly between now the majority leader. But none passed the Legislative Assembly does not allow floor each chamber, more work could have been House. amendments for legislation. done. (Legislators passed 73; the ratio is Another legislative review commission “In my opinion, the rules were indeed a usually the reverse for a regular session, in 2006 came up with a different idea for little over-restrictive, but that’s politics,” when 3,000 bills are considered.) change: Legislators should test-drive annual says Wilhelms, a former leader of the House “This was a session to determine what sessions in the next two years before asking Republican minority, who observed the ses- might or might not work,” says Richard voters to approve a measure. sion as a 70-year-old college intern. “They Devlin, majority leader of the Oregon “Our trial-run recommendation was truly certainly did allow the House leadership the Senate. innovative in that it recognized the need to tight control desired by the commission.” Devlin heads the Senate committee that move toward annual sessions,” says Gary Some of the minority Republicans said the will draft a potential ballot measure. He Wilhelms, a co-chairman of the commission House rules gave Democrats too much sway said a session in the even-numbered year with three decades of experience as a legis- despite only a one-vote majority. House should be limited to 45 or 50 days. lator, legislative staffer and lobbyist. “But Republican Leader Bruce Hanna voted for A survey of citizens conducted by Riley at the same time, it sought a path that would the rules to smooth over tensions on the first Research Associates of Portland after the hopefully demonstrate success to Oregon day of the session. session indicated 60 percent support annual voters.” “But we have to give equal representation sessions and 24 percent oppose them. “I think it is a statement that people are starting to have some belief again that the SENATE MAJORITY HOUSE REPUBLICAN legislature can work, however imperfect, LEADER LEADER cumbersome, expensive, time-consuming and frustrating it is,” says Peter Courtney, RICHARD DEVLIN BRUCE HANNA the Senate president.