Dakota Beacon

Did you know that the most of the legislative assembly won’t have read or researched a staggering number of the bills they have passed? Ask your legislator if he or she has personally read and studied all of the bills he or she has passed. For their vote, legislators often rely on a conference committee with six members in it, or the Legislative Council, a fellow legislator, a lobbyist, or a friend. That’s not representation. If six people are going to decide whether or not a bill should be passed and if most everyone else is going to vote based upon the recommendation, why do we need 141 legislators?

As soon as a legislator takes someone’s word for the contents of a bill, and doesn’t personally read and study it, that legislator is representing the person who gave the advice, not you or me. It’s like a student looking over someone’s shoulder when taking a test. Plain and simple, it is cheating. In the case of the average student, it is only done a few times, whereas this is routine for a legislator.

There’s no objection to receiving additional advice and getting all points of view. But how can one accurately debate an issue or apply common sense to a bill which hasn’t been read? It’s impossible to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. How can a legislator make a truly intelligent and informed decision if he or she hasn’t personally read the bill?

Did you know that bills are amended and passed by the Senate and the House all in the same day? The Governor could also sign it that day. Confirm it yourself by going here: http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/61-2009/bill-text/house-bill.html

Yes, there is transparency, but in many cases it is transparency after the fact – after the vote has already been made and the poorly thought-out law passed. We should always have the time and the right to find out about the final version of a bill, think about it and then provide thoughtful suggestions on how to improve the bill before it is voted on.

Our legislators should have the time to review our comments and not be so rushed that he or she can only tally the “yes’s” or “no’s” from constituents. Amending a bill and passing it the same day provides no way for us to educate our legislators on our real-life experience. It cuts us out of the legislative process.

Sometimes a legislator will get a comment and for whatever reason has to discount it. I remember a time when I had an employee tell me how I could improve my business. For two years she said the same thing in literally the same way over and over again. I couldn’t get it. Then another employee pointed out the same thing but said it in another way. I finally grasped it and agreed whole-heartedly. Sometimes to get a point across it has to be couched in a different way and said multiple times.

If legislators aren’t given the time to review comments from their constituents, before the final version of the bill is voted on, and if they don’t get to read similar comments stated in different ways concerning the final version, the legislator has no way to learn and thus isn’t able to truly represent his or her constituency in the best way possible. There is a lot for a legislator to learn. The people should be able to help the legislator learn, and not merely rely on other politicians to teach the legislator what he or she “needs to know.”

Did you know that the legislative assembly could, without too much difficulty, re-work their rules and procedures, and as a result, they would be able to provide us with advance notice? They can read the bills now, but just choose not to. Reading the bill in full, before-the-fact transparency are the right things to do. It is common sense.

Jerrol LeBaron, Executive Director of Honor In Office, is working to get an initiated measure on the ballot that would require legislators to read and study the bill before a legislator could vote in favor of it. This measure also requires that no bill can be voted on until the final version of the bill has been posted on the Internet four days in advance of the vote. For more information, go to http://www.HonorInOffice.org