Silver And Nesbitt Announce
Second Round Of Assembly Rules Changes

Bipartisan Agreement Continues
Assembly's Efforts to Make Legislative Proceedings More Open And Responsive

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Minority Leader Charles Nesbitt today announced another round of internal rules changes that continue the Assembly’s efforts to make its proceedings more open and responsive.

"When the Assembly first announced a series of initial rules changes, we did so knowing that additional work was still necessary. For that reason I had asked the Assembly Steering Committee, chaired by Assemblyman Jack McEneny, and, ultimately, both conferences to consider other structural changes that would improve our operations. Today, we advance a second round of reforms that came out of these discussions," said Silver. "As in the past, we pledge to continue our efforts to improve the Assembly’s operations as part of our overall efforts to reform the way this state operates."

Silver noted that the Assembly has made government reform a top priority in the current legislative session. In addition to rules changes already enacted, the Assembly has also passed campaign finance reform, voting reform and judicial selection reform and has advanced budget reform measures in an effort to enact broad and meaningful changes that promote more accountable, efficient and democratic state government.

"I am encouraged by these latest reforms that will begin to improve the Assembly committee process and I am pleased that the Majority has sought Assembly Minority input to institute these changes," said Nesbitt. "The Assembly Minority conference will continue to work toward additional reforms to further open the legislative process and give greater voice to rank and file members."

"As Steering Committee chair, I have spent many hours in discussion with many dedicated colleagues committed to improving the way the Assembly functions," said McEneny. "I am pleased to say that our collective effort will continue throughout the session. As always, I am grateful to and proud of the sincere efforts by members of the Steering Committee and each individual member whose thoughtful contributions and input resulted in these newest changes."

According to Silver and Nesbitt, the changes sought by the Assembly and expected to be acted on next week will reform the operating procedures within the house, making the conduct of the house’s business more open and efficient. These goals will be achieved by:

• codifying the Assembly’s commitment to the conference-committee process by establishing a Committee on Conference Committees. This change will empower rank-and-file members by creating a process by which sponsors can petition for their bills to be reviewed by the new committee in order to have their legislation and similar legislation passed by the Senate negotiated in an open and public forum. Meetings of the Committee on Conference Committees will be public and recommendations by the five-member committee will be issued in writing, including any dissenting opinions;
• limiting the number of standing committees on which a member can serve to no more than six. This change will result in greater committee involvement among individual members;
• requiring that at a minimum, each standing committee meet once a month in order to speed up consideration of legislation. This change will empower all members seeking to move their legislation through the committee structure and result in more bills being sent to the floor without being required to go through the Rules Committee; and
• instituting member sanctions for missed standing committee meetings. Under this change, a member who has three or more annual unexcused absences from regularly scheduled meetings at which bills are to be considered will result in the loss of a committee appointment.

The changes announced today are in addition to a series of significant reforms enacted by the Assembly with bipartisan support last month that ended empty-seat voting; overhauled the Assembly’s Rules Committee; extended the time for unlimited bill introduction; required the Rules Committee to approve acceptance of all governor’s Messages of Necessity; eased the Motion to Discharge process; renewed the Assembly’s efforts for a statewide, public-service, cable TV channel to cover state government; and prohibited lobbyists in the area at the rear of the Assembly Chamber.

The Assembly also enacted budget-related changes that will improve the budget process and provide the public greater review of the process by which state budgets are implemented. To that end, the Assembly has passed a rules change, which if adopted by the Senate, would require the Assembly and Senate to each pass a concurrent budget resolution in early March setting out a timetable for key budget decisions, including immediately convening a joint conference committee to negotiate differences in their budget resolutions to achieve a timelier state budget. In addition, the Assembly will conduct annual budget implementation hearings to ensure a consistent process for a public review of state agency compliance with the enacted budget.

Silver noted that in addition to these newest changes, the Assembly Majority Steering Committee will continue to develop other reform initiatives on such topics as information technology, constitutional reform and legislative redistricting.

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Note: Click here to view a copy of the bipartisan rules changes proposed by the Assembly and expected to be adopted on Monday, February 14.