By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Lame duck legislatures don’t exactly limp along as the name implies at the end of the year. Instead, some make a sprint to pass sweeping legislation as the final days of the year tick away.
During the past few weeks, Ohio’s lame duck legislatures managed to cram through dozens of bills that may not have stood a chance earlier in the year. The bills placed tight restrictions on abortions, allowed concealed guns on college campuses, forbid municipalities from raising minimum wage, and threw out renewable energy mandates.
Pretty weighty stuff to rush through without the customary review process.
By time the lame ducks were done, dozens of bills were passed by the Ohio House and Senate during the final three voting days of the 131st General Assembly, ending with a marathon session that started early one afternoon and concluded the next day in the wee hour of 3 a.m.
That doesn’t sit well with State Senator Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green.
“It is extremely difficult to handle 40, 60, 80 amendments and bills in the matter of two weeks,” he said.
“We had more decisions that shouldn’t have been done,” in this past lame duck session, Gardner said last week. “Typically, it’s the amendments,” that are the biggest problem. “That’s the challenge in lame duck – to sort out what has to be done, what should be done, and what shouldn’t be done.”
One of the bills missing from the list was a proposal to ban lame duck sessions – the flurry of legislative work every two years when members of Ohio’s House of Representatives have either been re-elected, defeated or relinquished their seats.
Only about eight state legislatures allow bills to be passed during the lame duck session. But to be fair, only eight states have legislatures that meet throughout the entire year. Some state’s regular sessions are quite limited, such as Florida which convenes on March 3 and adjourns May 1, Utah which operates from Jan. 26 to March 12, and Virginia from Jan. 14 to Feb. 27. Those legislatures can reconvene later in the year, but only for specific topics.
The term “lame duck” was reportedly created in the 18th century Britain to describe bankrupt businessmen. The term compared their diminished power to a bird injured after being shot.
But in Ohio, the lame duck sessions seem to instead have a burst of energy to get bills passed that would otherwise be dropped from the schedule at the end of the year. The final couple weeks are used as the last ditch effort to get some controversial bills passed.
“The bills die” if they aren’t passed by Dec. 31, so a rush begins to cram them through. “Legislators would rather not lose some of the progress that they have made,” Gardner said.
To do that, the proposals are often tacked on as amendments to unrelated legislation. The terminology paints a pretty picture of the process by calling them “Christmas tree bills.” That refers to a bill that is adorned with several last minute amendments – often unrelated to the original bill.
That, some legislators say, is in violation of the Ohio Constitution – intended to prevent “logrolling” – which means passing several amendments that wouldn’t stand a chance on their own.
But Gardner said some rather large umbrellas are created to connect issues that seem unrelated. “Some would be very hard to say there is a direct germaneness.”
Take Senate Bill 331, for example, which sets standards for pet stores that sell dogs. Somehow that bill became the vehicle for two amendments that limited the power of municipalities in the state. One blocked efforts of cities to raise minimum wages within their boundaries. The other would allow cell companies access to street lights, stop signs and other city structures for mini cell towers.
The unrelated issues posed a dilemma for Gardner, who wanted to vote in favor of the pet store standards, but against the limits on municipal authority to decide issues in city boundaries.
“There were a lot of issues in one bill,” he said. He ended up voting against the legislation. “For the most part, I try to err on the side of allowing local governments to make their decisions.”
Another complaint about lame duck legislation is that it allows proposals to become law without going through the public process of becoming a bill.
A law typically follows these steps:
- A bill is first vetted by a committee in the chamber where introduced. Hearings are held over several weeks where testimony is collected.
- Amendments are often added at this stage, and testimony is then gathered about those amendments.
- Once approved by the committee, the bill is then voted on by the full chamber.
- After one chamber approves the bill, it then goes to the other chamber to repeat the process.
That lengthy process is thrown out the Statehouse window during lame duck sessions. It’s that lack of public discussions and hearings that really troubles Gardner.
“The public deserves the right to the legislative process,” he said.
Bills are also required in the Ohio Constitution to reflect the topic of the legislation in the bill title. However, that is easily skirted around by lengthy titles.
There are some instances when the lame duck sessions are used for good reason, Gardner said. For example, legislators were able to get through an infant mortality bill which addressed Ohio’s high death rate for babies.
“That was an example of some positive work that got completed in December,” he said.
The session also allowed for a correction to be made to a medical insurance bill adopted in May. “It was good work,” Gardner said. “There are examples of when the end of the work session really works well.”
But Gardner, who is in line to become the majority floor leader in the Ohio Senate, plans to make some changes to prevent a legislative free-for-all when the next lame duck session rolls around in two years.
“My goal for two years from now, is to reduce the number of bills in the lame duck session,” he said.
Gardner said he plans to “set clear expectations” that bills be thoroughly vetted and not rammed through in November and December.
“I think that’s fair for the public,” he said.
