By Senator Alice Nitka, May 1, 2008
I’m writing these notes on the night of May 1 and am anticipating adjournment for the year, (except for a possible veto session in the summer), within the next 48 hours. Saturday, the 3rd around midnight is my guess as to when we will end. At the time of adjournment, the Senate members join the House members in the House chamber to hear a closing speech from the Governor, no matter the hour. There will be a lot of caffeine consumed that night and most legislators, those that live near and far will drive home that night rather than spend their sixth night of the week in Montpelier. The legislature doesn’t plan to meet on Sundays except for a carry over from Saturday into the early morning hours in an attempt to close the session.
The Conference Committee, three persons from the House and three from the Senate, assigned to work out the differences between the two bodies versions of H-891, the Budget Bill are resolving differences and should soon “sign off” on the conference report. There was a need to reduce the House passed budget by 24.5 million dollars due to the low revenue forecast which did not come as a surprise. The Joint Fiscal Office staff, the number crunchers who have been working until midnight every night this week, will then review the numbers. They have already started this process and I can see them across the parking lot working at their computers in the “Pink Lady”, the name of the old Victorian house, next to the Statehouse in which they have their offices. Next, the proofreaders will strain their eyes looking at the Budget as they do their tedious work in the bottom of the building underneath the back spiral staircase. There are only two proofreaders and they are rarely seen as they must review single every bill and all the changes that are made to them. This week changes are happening constantly and bills are being attached in different forms to other bills and there is a great deal of pressure for speed. Occasionally they emerge to walk through the building or to get some food. Most legislators don’t know who these invaluable hard workers are or how to find them. They keep to themselves
and need their quiet, undisturbed space.
The Budget will next need to be printed and just a few years ago it took a several days for the set up and printing even though the printers worked through the night at the state’s Middlesex shop. With e-mail and computers, the process can now be done in less than 24 hours with all these people doing their work from the time it is agreed upon. In the hallway near the Lt. Governor’s office is an easel with the list of Conference Committees, the legislators assigned as
conferees, the dates, times and rooms where the meetings will occur. The board is designed to help the public, the press, legislators and anyone else who is trying to follow a bill to sit in on the conference and hear what is happening to the bill. Added to the board when the conferees agree is the word, “signed” and I noticed tonight, “dead” next to one conference as apparently they were hopelessly deadlocked. A new committee can be appointed or the bill could just die. There are close to 60 conferences going on and some need to meet several times a day over a number of days. It’s hard to find spaces for all of this to
occur so some meetings are out on the steps or in the cafeteria which works fine provided it’s not lunch time.
Many members are on several conference committees thus the scheduling is a night mare as one also needs to be on the floor to hear bills and vote on them. One woman’s electronic scheduling device was “acting up” as she was scheduled to be in three places at one time. She didn’t do the scheduling as that job is assigned to the chair of the conference. In one instance, three freshmen were assigned to negotiate, which is unusual, thus their colleagues were giving them
constant advice and at this point no agreement has been reached. Perhaps they got too much advice. Another member who was accused of holding a bill hostage in his committee, by some supporters of the bill said he received about 40 phone messages delivered to him by the pages to say nothing of the e-mails he received. The bill eventually left the committee and did pass with some changes. The building these days is bulging with people; there’s a lot getting done and there are a lot of frayed nerves.
It’s hard to follow the bills on the web site these last two weeks as the rules are regularly suspended, thus some bills do not appear on the daily calendar. You can view the action that has taken place on a bill at www.leg.state.vt.us.
Feel free to contact me at home, 228-8432; or at the State House, 1-800-322-5616, or by e-mail at [email protected] Send mail to PO Box 136, Ludlow, VT 05149.
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