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Committee introduces measure requiring agencies to report vacant positions and employee travel in next-year budgets
Summary
The Ways and Means Committee voted to introduce RS 32787, which would require state agencies to identify vacant positions, explain why they are vacant and list associated funds, and disclose employee travel details when submitting next year’s budgets. The motion was moved by Representative Monks and recorded with two nays.
The Ways and Means Committee voted to introduce RS 32787, a proposal that would require state agencies to identify vacant positions and report employee travel when they submit next year’s budgets. Representative Monks moved to introduce the measure and recommend it for the second-reading calendar; the motion passed with Representatives Bell and Achilles recorded as nays.
Rep. Mike Moyle, District 10, who presented the RS, told the committee the proposal replaces a bill that passed the House but did not clear the Senate. "This is an RS that replaces a bill we passed, out of the the House side that didn't make it through the Senate side," Moyle said. "What the bill does is it requires agencies, next year, when they submit their budgets to identify any empty positions and why they're vacant, and the money that's associated with that vacancy."
Moyle said the measure also would require agencies to provide "a list of all the travel that agency members took, who paid for it, where they went, and what they did," so lawmakers can better understand travel-related costs. He framed the change as a transparency measure: "For years, we've never got our hands around these empty positions that cost us money for benefits and everything else," Moyle said.
Moyle told the committee the RS was softened from earlier drafts to require identification and reporting rather than imposing specific mandates on agencies. "We softened it up for concerns from our agencies and others instead of requiring certain things to happen. We just require them to identify," he said.
Representative Monks moved to introduce RS 32,787 and recommend placement on the second-reading calendar. The committee chair called the question; the motion passed. Committee records show Representatives Bell and Achilles were recorded as opposing the motion.
The committee did not adopt textual changes to RS 32,787 during the session. The measure will proceed to the second-reading calendar for further consideration.
