Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transparency In Legislative Process topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee weighs rule to post sponsor handouts on bill pages; amendment allows portrait format but resolution fails
Summary
At a Feb. 26 Senate Rules Committee meeting, Representative Thurston proposed a rule to post sponsor handouts directly on bill pages to improve transparency. The committee adopted an amendment to allow portrait or landscape formats, but a subsequent motion to advance the resolution failed after opposition from several senators.
Representative Thurston sought to change committee practice so that sponsor handouts prepared for committee meetings would be posted directly on each bill or resolution page, making them easier for legislators and the public to find.
The proposal would let sponsors provide a one- or two-page PDF handout to staff for inclusion on the bill page; once posted it could not be replaced or modified except to correct factual errors. Thurston said the change would “standardize where those handouts are collected” and make sponsor intent available earlier in the process to committees, staff and the public.
Committee members raised practical and policy questions. Senator McKay asked whether the rule as drafted limited sponsors’ ability to update handouts when substitutes or amendments change a bill; Thurston and others said the intent was to allow one handout per legislation or substitute but that the current draft could be clarified. Senator McKay suggested explicitly permitting one handout per version of a bill to prevent daily replacements that would create staff workload.
Senator McCain and others objected to a provision that would permit replacement only to correct “factual errors.” McCain said that restricting handout content to factual material would place legislative staff in the role of fact‑checkers and could chill sponsors’ ability to persuade. Thurston said the language evolved during House Rules Committee review and acknowledged the sponsor statement and handout concepts had been treated differently in prior drafts; he also reported support for adding a disclaimer from legislative research that the handout is sponsor‑provided material and not part of the official record.
The committee considered a technical amendment to allow handouts to be submitted in either landscape or portrait orientation; Senator McKay moved the amendment and the committee approved it. After further discussion about page‑limits, staff workload and clarifying conflicting subparagraphs in the draft, Senator McKay moved to pass House Joint Resolution 1, second substitute, with the understanding it would likely be revised again.
When put to a vote, several senators raised hands in opposition; the transcript records five raised hands against the motion and the chair concluded the motion failed. The committee did not adopt the resolution and the sponsor said she would work on clarifying language over the interim.
