Our Shawnee Representative in the Kansas House, John Rubin,
has long been an ardent advocate of full governmental transparency and
accountability. He believes that responsible governance demands that
elected officials always strive to fully inform themselves on the issues and
all aspects of legislation on which they vote, to cast informed votes, and
always to disclose to their constituents how they voted on the public
policies that affect the lives of Kansans.
For these reasons, Rep. Rubin is now fighting to change
longstanding Kansas legislative practices of bundling multiple bills in a
single conference committee report for one vote under the Joint Rules, and of
not recording votes on bills, resolutions and amendments in the Committee
of the Whole on General Orders under the House Rules, practices he believes are
undemocratic. He has drafted resolutions amending the Kansas
Legislature's Joint Rules and House Rules to correct these undemocratic
legislative practices, and plans to prefile them the week before the 2014
legislative session starts.
The first is a Concurrent Resolution amending the Joint
Rules to provide that a conference committee report may contain only the bill
being conferenced and all or part of one other bill that has passed
either Chamber during the current term. Existing practice allows for
an unlimited number of additional bills or parts of bills to be added to
a conference committee report (CCR). Often, legislators have
little if any opportunity to fully inform himself or herself of the contents,
consequences or effects of the many additional bills in a CCR, particularly if
the added bills did not originate in and were not debated in their Chamber, and
particularly under the pressing time constraints experienced late in
session, when most of these CCRs are considered. Accordingly, the
likelihood that most members are even marginally well informed on the votes
they are asked to cast on these multi-bundled CCRs is slim. Worse, it
is highly likely than in any CCR with six, eight or more such
bills, a member may fully support some of the bundled bills because
they square with the member’s principles and are, in his or her view, good
public policy, and may oppose others because they are not. In
short, current practice virtually ensures that members often cast uninformed
and unprincipled votes on much of the public policy contained in multi-bundled
CCRs. Rep. Rubin believes that is no way to govern. His Concurrent
Resolution will correct these irresponsible and undemocratic
practices.
The second Rubin proposal is a House Resolution amending the
House Rules to require that all House floor votes, whether in the
Committee of the Whole on General Orders or on Final Action, shall be recorded
votes. Current practice on General Orders in the Kansas House is
that all votes on bills, resolutions and amendments are voice votes, or, on a
division call, unrecorded electronic votes, absent a show of 15 hands
requiring a recorded vote. Make no mistake – those “unrecorded”
electronic division votes are in fact being recorded outside the chamber and in
the House Gallery, by handwritten notes, camera phones directed to the closed
circuit television screen, and otherwise, by government officials, lobbyists,
and other political insiders vested in the outcomes of these votes. Rep.
Rubin believes that citizens should have the same access to these
vote results that political insiders do. Moreover, all Kansans are,
in his view, entitled to know how legislators vote on every public policy
question put to them – in bills, amendments and resolutions – not just on Final
Action, but preliminarily on General Orders as well. In his
view, legislators' oath of office and their responsibility to be
transparent in their votes and accountable to the people of Kansas for them
require no less.
I applaud Rep. Rubin for his noteworthy efforts to
enhance public transparency and accountability in the Kansas Legislature.
Let John know that you support his efforts, of if you'd like more info: Email:john.rubin@house.ks.gov
If your Shawnee State rep is Charles Macheers, Email:charles.macheers@house.ks.gov Brett Hildabrand, Email:hildabrand2010@gmail.com or Kelly Meigs, Email:krmeigs@live.com email them and ask them to support John's bills:
