THE 1976 primary election is over and the General Assembly is returning to Springfield for an intensive three-month session which will be directed mainly at the budget presented on March 3 by Gov. Walker. As the deliberations heat up, it will be interesting to note whether operations in the House are improved now that a set of permanent rules has finally been adopted.
Action on the House permanent rules was one of the little noticed activities of the General Assembly's fall veto session and its one-day January session. House Resolution 237, sponsored by the Rules Committee, was introduced on May 2 last year, but no action was taken prior to adjournment of the regular 1975 session except to place the resolution on the fall calendar. And, it was only on November 21, the final day of the veto session that the House began consideration of the rules.
Thirty-nine amendments were offered November 21; nine were adopted. Just before adjournment, a vote was taken and the rules were adopted, 95-30. But since there were still a number of amendments pending, it was agreed that the vote would be reopened on January 14 (when the General Assembly arrived to hear the governor's "state of the state" message) to consider additional changes, although the final vote would stand. There were 42 additional amendments considered by the House on January 14; 14 were accepted.
It is difficult to speculate about the degree to which the rules will affect operations in the House. Many of the rules now formally adopted had been in effect as temporary rules. But the re we re some substantive changes aimed at improving the process. The rules provide for suspension of any particular rule by a vote of 89 members unless a rule provides for an extraordinary majority to suspend. In the latter case, it takes the same "extraordinary" number of votes to suspend the rule. The number of times the rules are suspended will be a rough measure of their success. If it becomes common practice to simply suspend rules in order to accomplish what could not be done under them, then the whole exercise will have been a waste of time.
One change that is aimed at alleviating one of the problems faced during the 1975 session deals with posting of bills for hearing in committees. Last year there were many complaints that bills were not available at the time of hearing, and committee members often did not know what they were voting on. Of course, the record number of bills introduced caused the problem of printing all of them in time for their consideration by the committees. Now, however, under Rule 18 (j): "No bill may be posted for hearing in Committee until printed copies are available in the bill room." And copies must be distributed to members before the bill is considered in committee.
A series of deadlines are also written into the permanent rules. In effect, they appear to continue what was instituted in 1975 and led to a series of small logjams at different points in the session but resulted in a somewhat more orderly than usual finish for the last week of the session in June. Under Rule 27(b) bills, with some exceptions, "to be considered by June 30 of any odd numbered year" must be filed no later than "April 3 of that calendar year."
Rule 24(i) sets deadlines for committee consideration of bills in "odd numbered" years. These are May 2 for House bills and June 13 for Senate bills. In terms of final floor action. Rule 36(d) states that: "... no House bill may be called for a vote on Third Reading after May 23 of the year in which it was introduced, and no Senate bill may be called for a vote on Third Reading after June 26 of the year in which it was introduced." It should be remembered that these deadlines do not apply to (1) appropriation bills, (2) bills sponsored by committees (except those introduce between April 3 and July 1 of odd numbered years), and (3) legislation determined by a majority of the members of the Rules Committee to be an "emergency bill necessary for the operation of government" (Rule 27(c)).
In even-numbered years, the only bill that can be considered are those in the same three categories listed above. Rule 73 provides that bills introduced in "even-numbered years" and bills introduced in odd-numbered years which did not meet "the applicable deadlines," can only be acted on if a bill falls into one of the categories. This means that a substantive bill introduced by an individual member after April 3 of the first year of the session cannot be acted on unless the Rules Committee determines it is an "emergency bill" under Rule 27(c).
The rules appear to be an attempt to restrict the even-numbered or second year of the session to (I) appropriations bills, (2) those sponsored by committees, and (3) those bills determined to be emergency measures by the Rules Committee. If this is the intent of the rules, then the "study calendar" where pending bills may be referred at the close of the first year of the session, is exactly that — a vehicle to allow committees to study particular policy issues in order to determine whether a committee ought to introduce legislation for action by the General Assembly during its second or even-numbered year session.
Obviously, this discussion only touches on a handful of the 79 House rules. The total set of rules will govern all organization and procedures of the House. Other rules may effect significant changes in the operation of the House. If they do, we will explain them and their effect. / L. S. C. ž
Bills become law
GOV. WALKER signed three bills into law:
S.B. 1508, a supplemental appropriation to the
state Racing Board, P.A. 79-1190, on January 16
and H.B. 3164 and H.B. 3165, authorization for
state assistance to maintain freight service on
certain rail lines, P.A. 79-1193 and P.A. 79-1194
on February 5 (see Legislative Action,
1976, p. 24).
April 1976 / Illinois Issues / 25