Shekarchi asks legislators to limit bills
PROVIDENCE - No one has complained publicly - at least not yet - about House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi’s effort to limit the number of bills introduced by each lawmaker to 15 during each legislative session.
And no wonder.
The more bills that get introduced – a total of 2,670 during the 2023 legislative session – the longer and later the public hearings stretch into the night and early morning hours. For context: Of the 2,670 bills introduced, only 398 new laws and 65 “local acts” took effect.
The others went nowhere for myriad reasons, including intractable differences over the proposed ban on “assault weapons,” police discipline, failed efforts to ban smoking at the two statesponsored casinos and environmental regulation.
Some lawmakers introduce many more pieces of legislation than others.
Excluding resolutions offering congratulations and condolences and other routine matters that do not require hearings, Rep. David Morales led the pack with 48 bill introductions; Rep. Joseph McNamara had 36; Rep. John “Jay” Edwards and Rep. Julie Casimiro had 34 each, and Rep. Terri Cortvriend, 31.
Why limit the number of bills introduced?
Democrat Shekarchi framed his attempt to limit bill introductions to 15 per legislator as a request for voluntary cooperation for the greater good. And for the record, Senate rules already say: “No Senator shall introduce more than 25 public bills during the annual session except with the permission of the President of the Senate.”
In an email to colleagues, Shekarchi said he is “very proud of the work that we accomplished last session. Our committees held nearly 1,500 hearings on House bills, along with hundreds of Senate bills.”
“You and your colleagues demonstrated remarkable resilience all session long – you endured long agendas and late nights and contemplated very serious, complex, and often emotional issues. I applaud you for your strong commitment to the public and the legislative process,” he continued.
“I know how much we collectively value strong public participation at every hearing and for every bill. At the same time, I recognize the collective strain that long hearings place not only on each individual legislator, but also on the public, our staff and the body as a whole.”
After consulting “with many of you,” Shekarchi said, he and House Majority Leader Christopher Blazejewski and House GOP Leader Michael Chippendale “are requesting a chamber-wide commitment that each representative will not exceed fifteen bills for introduction in the 2024 session ... absent extraordinary circumstances.”
Will there be exceptions?
The limit will not apply to routine resolutions, city and town bills and bills introduced by request of a state agency.
“This bill limit is intended to be a mutual agreement within the chamber and I will be relying on all of you to comply,” he wrote.
“We expect the reduction of bills to have a broad beneficial effect upon the efficiency of the hearing process,” he wrote in an email just before the prefiling period began for the new legislative session that begins in January. (Pre-filing, in this case, only refers to the legislators submitting their proposed bills to the legislature’s draftsmen and women.)
“I have every confidence that the entire chamber will welcome the opportunity to improve our process in this meaningful way,” Shekarchi wrote.