NORMAN — During the first week of the legislative session, Norman state Reps. Scott Martin and Aaron Stiles were at the forefront of a fight to make the legislative process more transparent.
Oklahoma is one of the most advanced open-government states in the nation thanks to these changes said Martin, R-Norman.
Weve essentially done away with the old days of a few legislators meeting in a dark, smoke-filled room to decide the fate of Oklahoma, said Stiles, R-Norman.
One of the changes requires conference committees to be open to the public. In the past, conference committees seldom held any meeting whatsoever (let alone one in public), there were few public votes, and even legislators had trouble obtaining a copy of the final version of a bill before it came up on the House floor.
The days of using a chaotic process to sneak through unpopular proposals are at an end, the two legislators noted. Under the new rules, all citizens and legislators will have ample opportunity to review proposals and debate them, preventing the unethical abuses seen in the past.
Other changes include advanced notice to the public of agendas and recorded votes in conference committee.
In the past your vote in conference committee was not cast in public, Martin said. Now citizens can see how their elected official votes in conference committee just as they can in standing committees.
Moreover, the new House rules give legislators the ability to bring a bill up for a vote in committee even if the committee chair does not support the measure. Under the rules, a bill must be granted a hearing if a majority of committee members sign a petition requesting a vote.
I believe the minority party currently the Democrats should get a fair shot at having their bills heard too, Stiles said. While a committee chair could refuse to hear a bill, the author could force the bill to be heard by getting enough signatureswhich shouldnt be hard to do for bills that have merit.
In addition, a bill can be discharged and bypass the committee process if two-thirds of the House signs a petition requesting that action.
Thanks to those important safeguards, no one lawmaker can prevent legislation with broad support from receiving a public hearing and vote, Martin and Stiles noted. But at the same time, no one lawmaker can bog down the process with dozens of meaningless votes on bills with no broad appeal or constituency.
Martin also praised rule reforms that eliminate votes on shell bills in the appropriations process. In the past, lawmakers have been required to vote on hundreds of bills that had no numbers or substantive language in them.
These are some of the most open and transparent rules in the history of our state, Martin said. In my role as Vice Chairman of the Appropriations and Budget Committee, its important that the process is wide-open so the taxpayers can see how their money is being spent.
In the past, each Session we would consider hundreds of bills with no dollar figure attached to the bill this was just part of the process. Well, no longer. Now, all appropriation bills will come out of committee with a dollar amount in them, once again, allowing the Legislature and the public to have better involvement and input with this critical part of the process. We have made great strides in openness and transparency in the last six years, but these rules represent some of our best work to date.
While no process is perfect, the Norman lawmakers said the new rules are a dramatic improvement that increases government transparency and accountability, and thats a good thing.
