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Lawmakers consider requiring public tracking of enrolled bills between chambers and governor's desk
Summary
A hearing on House Bill 331 examined whether the Secretary of State should post an online status showing where a bill is after final legislative action and before the governor receives it. Sponsors said the change would improve transparency; Secretary of State staff warned of accessibility and fiscal impacts and said current tracking is manual.
Representative Lucy Weber introduced House Bill 331, which would require the Secretary of State’s office to publish a publicly accessible indication of where an enrolled bill is between the legislature’s final chamber action and delivery to the governor.
Weber said the proposal does not change timelines or procedures but would make it easier for the public and stakeholders to “simply go online and see where the bill is.” She described a past incident when an enrolled bill was difficult to locate and recounted conversations with the House Clerk and the Secretary of State staff about where such a status record could reasonably be kept.
Deputy Secretary of State Erin Hennessy told the committee the office currently uses a manual tracking mechanism and that staff will answer public inquiries by phone or in person. “Our office does not have access to the online docket system,” Hennessy said, and an online, accessible tracking feature would require clarification of format and probably a fiscal appropriation.
House Clerk Paul Smith described the current paper-and-spreadsheet practice: bills are signed for during transfers of possession among OLS, the speaker, the senate president and the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State maintains a spreadsheet tracking when bills are delivered to the governor and when they are returned. Smith said the spreadsheet could be posted, noting that municipal- and presiding-officer-level practices differ and that some historical disposition problems occurred when the process relied entirely on informal handling.
Committee members asked whether the General Court’s public docket could show an additional line such as “sent to governor’s office.” Weber and Smith said clerks had discussed that option but had been told it wasn’t possible because possession of enrolled bills transfers outside the house or senate clerks’ direct control. Hennessy said that, aside from technical and accessibility issues, there was nothing in the Secretary of State’s current practice that would legally preclude publishing a location statement if the legislature or clerks arranged for it.
After public questioning about definitions and where an enrolled bill is considered to be in the process, the committee moved to recommend the bill Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL).
