A group of freshmen legislators are hoping they can speed up the legislative process and produce better policy at the same time by putting strict limitations on how many bills lawmakers can introduce each year.
If lawmakers were limited in the bills they could sponsor each session, Rep. Chad Campbell, D-14, says the legislative process would be streamlined, resulting in more time for debates and a greater number of bills being heard in committee. To achieve that, he filed H2010, which would statutorily cap the number of bills a lawmaker could introduce at 10 per legislative session.
But some lobbyists don’t see much of a future for the bill.
“I don’t think that’s going to go very far,” said Norris Nordvold, who lobbied for the city of Phoenix for nearly two decades and now owns his own consulting firm.
Similarly, veteran lobbyist Kevin DeMenna says the bill is “misguided” and unlikely to be very successful. Lots of bills are needed, he says, because the state regulates dozens of industries and aspects of daily life.
“As long as there’s the number of titles in the law…those laws will continue to need attention,” he said.
Limiting how many bills can be introduced, DeMenna says, won’t alter the amount of changes made to state law on a yearly basis. Instead, the bills will just be longer and more comprehensive.
“Each bill will be a tome,” he said. “It doesn’t mean there will be fewer changes to Title 42 [taxation] — it just means they’ll be wedged into large, complicated bills.”
And Rep. Bob Robson, R-20, says the bill is well-intentioned but impractical.
“It’s a nice thought, but I think each individual member can limit themselves to what’s substantive,” he said.
However, the measure’s supporters are ardent in their calls for fewer bills. Rep. Rich Crandall, R-19, co-sponsored the measure and says many freshman lawmakers were amazed at how many bills their peers filed.
“What we don’t like is the people who drop 60, 70, 80 bills,” he said. “If you drop that many bills, it becomes everyone’s burden.”
That many bills, Rep. Doug Clark says, leads to ineffective representation.
“I think [a limit] would bring quality to the Legislature instead of quantity,” the District 6 Republican said. “I think that when an individual submits an inordinate number of bills, they can’t do a quality job of…defending the bills.”
Last session, Rep. Marian McClure’s 52 bills were the most of any lawmaker, though the District 30 Republican’s total is slightly inflated because she filed 10 bills on behalf of seatmate Rep. Jonathan Paton, who was serving a tour of duty with the Army in Iraq until February.
Rep. Bill Konopnicki, R-5, introduced 46 bills, the second most among House members.
In the Senate, Chuck Gray, R-19, was the prime sponsor of 51 measures.
Of the 90 legislators, 56 introduced more than 10 bills last session; while only half of the representatives surpassed that threshold, 26 of the 30 senators were the primary sponsor of at least 11 measures.
The Senate currently has no limit on bill filings, but the House does. Its rules restrict representatives to only seven bills, but the tally doesn’t begin until after the fourth day of the session. Any bills filed prior to that are not counted against the limit.
H2010, Campbell says, would sew that loophole shut.
“This closes everything. You can introduce 10 bills, period,” he said.
The proposed limit would provide exemptions for memorials, resolutions, bills related to state agency reviews and the budget bills. Permission for a lawmaker to exceed the 10-bill limit could be granted by a two-thirds vote of the chamber.
Two of the last three legislative sessions have seen a record number of bills filed. The 2000 record of 1,280 was bested in 2005, when lawmakers submitted 1,311 bills. In 2006, that mark was shattered, as legislators filed 1,453 bills. The most recent session saw 1,434 bills filed.
Though it didn’t set a record for the number of bills, the 2007 session resulted in only 318 bills receiving approval from both the House and the Senate, the lowest number since only 285 bills were passed in 2003. But the 318 passages represented only 22.2 percent of the bills filed, the lowest since lawmakers in 1976 passed barely 20-percent of the bills submitted that year.
Clark scoffs at the idea that so many issues need to be addressed every year.
“I don’t think there’s that many things wrong with Arizona,” he said.
Nordvold speculates that one reason the number of bills introduced is so high is because legislators file some bills with no intention of ever pursuing them. Rather, he says, they are hoping it is an issue that will resonate with constituents – or maybe just as a way to satisfy a small group of constituents angling for a change.
Clark doesn’t put much value in bills that never have a chance to succeed. The problem, he says, is that lawmakers are too often — and incorrectly — judged as effective or ineffective based on the number of bills they introduce.
“I don’t know if it’s a notch on our belts or what,” he said. “For some reason, it seems the longer you’re down here, the more the disease sets in that you feel like you have to drop a couple dozen bills.”