U.S. House poised to adopt transparency reforms

When the 112th Congress convenes tomorrow the members will adopt their governing rules to help guide the legislative process. Among the changes being considered in the House are multiple transparency reforms to help put the public back in the legislative debate. According to the new Republican House majority, under the rules Committees must:

• Post online their committee rules

• Provide 3 days notice for all markups

• Circulate the text of legislation to be marked-up no less than 24 hours before the markup

• Post online all votes in the committee 48 hours after a markup (A proposal from Rep. Reichert)

• Make available online the text of any amendments adopted in a markup (A proposal from Rep. Jenkins)

• Post online “truth in testimony” information, “with appropriate redactions to protect the privacy of the witness” so that any conflicts of interest with hearing witnesses are made public

• Make available online the member attendance record for each hearing and markup within 24 hours

• Webcast and make available online their hearings and markups

As is the case for the Washington State Legislature, however, these rules can be waived. That said, it is very encouraging to see these changes being proposed. In fact, we've made similar recommendations for the Washington State Legislature to adopt to help avoid the lack of transparency on display last year.

Among the problems we documented, the Legislature:

• Routinely cancelled legislative rules requiring five-day notice before holding a hearing on a bill;

• provided inadequate notice of the time, room number and subject matter of public hearings;

• held public hearings on bills with no text, and;

• voted on bills the same day details were made publicly available.

This disturbing trend continued during the one-day special session last month. Details about the public hearing to be held at 10 a.m. on December 11 were not sent until 5:23 p.m. the night before. The text of the supplemental budget bill making nearly $500 million in reductions was not available the night before the hearing. 

To avoid these problems from occurring in the future, we propose the Legislature refer to the voters a constitutional amendment that would:

• Require 72-hour public notification before any bill could receive a public hearing;

• Prohibit title-only bills. No public hearing or vote should occur on a “ghost bill;” and

• Prohibit votes on final passage until the final version of the bill to be approved has been publicly available for at least 24 hours.

The model constitutional amendment we drafted to implement these reforms would allow these protections to be waived with a super-majority vote but not by a simple majority.

Though only in rules form, it is encouraging to see the U.S. House considering to govern itself by similar sunshine requirements.

If Washington lawmakers are serious about providing legislative transparency, they should provide voters the opportunity to adopt these common-sense protections that will allow the public to be part of the legislative process in a meaningful way.