GOP lawmakers introduce another round of reform bills in their efforts to increase public awareness and scrutiny on the legislative process.
House & Senate Republicans are tackling three new areas in four proposed bills, including creating a crossover day in the Delaware legislature.
A crossover day is a deadline near the end of the annual session when bills can no longer move from one chamber to the next.
The bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Lyndon Yearick (R-Camden-Wyoming), says creating this deadline would ensure every bill receives its proper committee hearing, public comment period and time for consideration.
“To have something introduced late in the session, where there’s already plenty of other bills that have not been worked – it doesn’t give it the justice that the bill deserves.”
There are currently 26 states with crossover day deadlines. Yearick’s proposed constitutional amendment would set the deadline 10 days before the session ends.
Another proposal calls for both chambers to raise the threshold of votes it takes to suspend the rules.
The House and Senate each have rules requiring bills to receive a committee hearing with advanced notice and an opportunity for public comment, but each can bypass these rules with a simple majority vote.
State Rep. Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton) and State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover South) plan to introduce bills in their respective chambers to raise the requirement to three-fifths majority.
“By creating a system whereby it’s a three-fifths majority vote – what we’re saying to the general public is that we are enforcing our own rules to a higher standard by forcing the vote to be of a higher threshold than a simple twenty-one vote," Spiegelman says, referring to a simple majority vote in the House, which currently requires twenty-one “yes” votes to suspend the rules.
"If I had it my way, I'd raise it to a three-quarter situation. However, at a minimum, what we're trying to do is say to those that are desiring a suspension of rules, it's going to have to cross a higher threshold, because we want to make sure that you're doing it out of a complete necessity — it's required. Because what you're doing, in essence, going around the rules, is limiting the people's access, and that should be done with great caution," Buckson says.
The bill would also require a roll call vote instead of utilizing a voice vote. Spiegleman says this will help hold lawmakers accountable by publicly documenting which lawmakers voted to suspend the rules.
The final piece of legislation is House Bill 126, initially introduced by former State Rep. Ruth Briggs King during the 150th General Assembly.
State Sen. Gerald Hocker (R-Ocean View) is making an effort to revive the bill, which would require elected or paid appointed officials to report to the Public Integrity Commission (PIC) if they are also employed by any state agency, education or other institution.
Hocker explains this would assist the PIC and the State Auditor to evaluate if the state official received dual compensation for overlapping work hours.
