SmartTranscript of House Energy and Digital Infrastructure- 2025-01-17- 10:15am

[Kathleen James ]: Alright. Welcome, everybody. It is Friday, January seventeenth, and you are joining the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee. We are doing some basic welcome to the legislature homework this week. And so, we are joined today by [Speaker 1 ]: the clerk of the house, and I'll [Kathleen James ]: let you introduce yourself to the record in a moment. But first, we always go around the table and introduce ourselves, and then we have a habit here of asking everyone who's joining us to also introduce themselves so folks know who's in the room. So I'm representative Kathleen James from Bennington Ford District. [Scott Campbell ]: Scott Campbell from St. Johnsbury, Calbright, Essex District. [Bert Bailey ]: Bert Bailey from Memorial two. [Christopher Howland ]: Christopher [Scott Campbell ]: Rowland, the man's here, Ben. Michael Southward, Caledonia two. [Christopher Howland ]: Christopher Howland, four. Graham [Graham Kloepner ]: Kloepner, Chittenden, thirteen. And if I may, madam chair, acknowledge that my daughter, Tasha, is here. She will introduce herself at the appropriate time and her colleagues from the Snelling Center's early childhood educator program. [Kathleen James ]: Oh, fun. That's excellent. Okay? [Speaker 1 ]: Marcelin, we're going to. [Kathleen James ]: We're going to. Representative Tory is in house appropriations right now, listening in on some relevant testimony. [Nigel ]: Nigel, first assistant clerk for vet ops. [Kathleen James ]: Hi. I'm Tasha Kleppner. I work at the [Speaker 1 ]: design center for government. [Kathleen James ]: Hi. I'm Michelle Hunter. I work in Arlington at Arlington County Care. Hi. I'm Cassandra Gaylord, and I have a credit practice in Bennington Brown County. Welcome. And now to our esteemed witness. Hello. Thank you, madam chair. [Speaker 1 ]: Thank you, committee. That's San Ras. They're gonna help. Thank you for having Nigel Lyon here to discuss with you, overview of committee procedure. And thank you also to Jack for posting the document that we provided for you today. Madam chair, is it okay if I do share screen? Yes, please. Approve this overview document. This is posted on your committee page. Thank you to Jack. I'm gonna put it on the screen now so we can all review it together. Can you see that okay? Yes. I can. Excellent. So, madam chair, thank you again for inviting us to talk about your committee procedure as this committee is going to have a lot of work to do as all of our committees do. And so we provided this document here today to just provide an overview of how committees do their business and how you get legislation on the floor. So what this document does is provide an overview, and it starts with just what are committees for. So committees perform the fundamental task of considering and making recommendations on legislation, and I like to think about it as the committees being the heartbeat of our legislation, because all of our workflows most of our workflows through committees to get legislation to the floor. So what this document does is provide an overview of the role of committees in our legislative process and the rules that apply to them as they work on those tasks that are assigned to them. So big picture, committees are instruments or agencies of the body appointing them, and their function is to carry out the will of the body. So the house has its standing committees to consider bills referred or committed to them. And the functions of a committee are purely advisory. Your acts are subject to the review of the body, and they can be approved or rejected. So every time you vote out a bill, you have to take a vote on any amendments recommended by the committees by the full house. You can only make recommendations, and they have no force until they're approved by the body, but we rely heavily on the work of committees. Not only it's fair to call you that you have to be experts in your subject matter, but the body really turns to the committees of jurisdiction to give advice on the matters referred to your committee. So you can think about committees as agents. They're microcosms of the body that appointed them, and Mason's manual of legislative procedure provides that. The rules of procedure in the committee are the same as the rules of the body as far as they are applicable, but as conditions permit, the rules of debate should be relaxed in order to give free flow of discussion and not hamper the work of the committee. So we've got our house standing committee set forth in house rule twenty five. It was one of the first things you did on day one was to amend the provisions of those committee jurisdictions. That rule defines each committee, their number, and their jurisdiction. And then the speaker, by rule, refers bills to each appropriate committee based on your committee jurisdiction. [Christopher Howland ]: And [Speaker 1 ]: you're not required to take up the bills that are referred or committed to you. I see you have your wall going, madam chair. You have [Kathleen James ]: We do. [Speaker 1 ]: Couple bills referred to your committee so far. If I love our system here where we put up on the wall, the bills that are referred or committed to committee. You're not required to take them up. If there's still bills under the in committee column up there at the end of the biennium, you say that the bill has hung on the wall and died in committee, but the committee can make recommendations to mow out the bill for the body's consideration. Yes, [Kathleen James ]: madam chair. Just to emphasize for everyone at the end of the biennium. Yes. So when we adjourn this summer, the any bill that's still there is still alive. Exactly. It's when the biennium ends. The bills really their grave. Yes. Okay. [Speaker 1 ]: Exactly. So if a committee does wanna pick up and pursue a bill and only votes it out, you're going to be reporting the bill. And then, also, a bill can be there thereafter committed to another committee, and that's upon motion. So a bill can be, released from a committee and committed to another one, or sometimes you have these big bills that cover the jurisdiction of multiple committees. And so members will make motions to ensure that a bill goes to multiple committees of jurisdiction through a motion to commit. But in all of these cases, if the committee wants to report the bill, I e voted out, the committee's gotta follow the subsequent procedure to ensure that the bill gets on the notice calendar so that it all ultimately can be considered by the house. And this is where we're gonna get into some more of the nuts and bolts of getting the bill on the notice calendar. Great. So we're talking here about what is called a committee report. When you hear that phrase, committee report, it's the term used to describe a committee's recommendations on a bill referred or committed to the committee. So often, the two most common reports are, reporting the bill favorably, which means the committee is not recommending any amendments, the bill as they received it, or favorably with amendment. That means any amendment that the committee wants to recommend that's a favorable with amendment committee report. Also note, less frequently used options that are available are to report available without recommendation. That means the committee's not taking a position on it, but it is at least getting the bill out of the possession of the committee and back into the possession of the house, and then adversely, meaning the bill should not pass. We don't see those too often, but they are available in our house rules. So how do you go about voting on a committee report? Well, we provided here a hyperlink to a document on the clerk's page that provides some common committee motions that a committee can use to vote on the committee report. If you click on that link, it'll take you to this other doc about motions that you can use. We'll spend time on that now, but that doc is available. The motion just depends on what the committee is recommending. Is it favorable, favorable amendment? Also depends on if it's a house or senate bill because the house can actually amend a bill, a house bill, but it can only propose to amend the senate bill. And conversely, the senate can only propose to amend the house bill and can amend the senate bill. But we have that respect for each other's chambers. I'll just note here that if a committee is voting on a committee report that is favorable with amendment, you'll see in that hyperlink document, there's two votes. First, there's a vote on the specific amendment that you wanna approve. So I know that we approve amendment x y z. Okay. Yes. [Scott Campbell ]: Is this excuse me. Is this spoken committee before or is this on the house? [Speaker 1 ]: In committee. Yeah. Okay. Yes. These are the votes the committee would take if it's favorable with amendment. You need to have that vote on your final amendment. That's the first vote. And then your second vote is to report the bill favorable with amendment, meaning that amendment that you just voted to approve in the first motion first vote. But it's that second vote. That's the one that's important. That's the one that gets reported to our office, and that's the one that gets reported in the calendar. That second vote to report the bill favorable with amendment, meaning you actually wanna get the vote wanna get the bill out of your committee and get it to the floor with that amendment. So you've gone so far as to report a bill or vote a bill out of your committee. You want to see it. Carry on. What happens next is that the chair designates a bill reporter who's gonna be responsible for seeing the bill through the process. So this is set forth in House Bill thirty one. The chair designates a member of the committee to be the bill reporter. This is the member who delivers the committee report to the clerk's office and by the language of your house rule is responsible for the committee report's accuracy, the propriety of its language, why do we need it, and for explaining the committee report when it's considered by the house. So it could be a really big responsibility for some of these heavy duty bills that you have. There's the one bill reporter that says they need it by the chair. Although for these huge complex bills, you can also have some assistance as a bill reporter where you can plan in ahead where you can yield the other members of your committee to be back up for you. But it is that one bill reporter who's responsible for getting into the floor. Yes. [Kathleen James ]: When we we talked a little bit about this on the first day, and I had mentioned that our hope is that as we move those to the floor that we support as a committee, anybody who wants to have a chance to present a bill on the floor will have the chance to do that. So if we're if we're bringing a bigger bill and we're gonna have a chance for everybody to kinda help out, do I name one bill recorder, period, and then informally, we yield to other members? Okay. [Speaker 1 ]: It's good to have that plan in advance. Okay. How Yeah. All the efforts in the committee go to report the bill reporter. And in practice, you can talk to your chair about this, but usually, they can get a little easy on the newer members. So the newer members don't have to be the major bill reporter for a huge piece of legislation. [Scott Campbell ]: That's how we put the team members out front. You know? [Kathleen James ]: And that's if that's if you want two things. [Christopher Howland ]: Right. Yeah. [Kathleen James ]: Folks who want to help them have the chance to present will be absolutely afforded that chance. [Scott Campbell ]: Committee report. The committee report is the bill that we're that as amended or whatever that we're passing on to be closing or passing on to the full house for consideration. [Speaker 1 ]: It's your recommendations on the bill. Sir? Yes. Your committee's final [Scott Campbell ]: report. Refer to the the the report as what the member said, what the bill reporter says on the floor. Okay. [Speaker 1 ]: Right? I call it what you just described a floor report. Like, that ain't the word spoken on the floor. Your committee report is your official recommendation. [Scott Campbell ]: Which which which is which is the bill and the vote. Yes. Right? Yeah. That's that's the that's the committee. Yes. I just wanted to to clarify, especially so for me, I'm I'm on a pin here so but for the new members, that we talk about bill reports as, you know, the floor floor report and committee report are sort of completed. So Yeah. [Kathleen James ]: It's not like the the bill report is some ten page homework assignment that somebody writes. It's the floor [Christopher Howland ]: Madam chair, do they your full floor report, is it the do you read the verbatim of the bill or a summary of it? [Kathleen James ]: You don't. So Betsy Anne could discuss this, but in general, in bills I've reported, the floor report isn't sort of my introduction. And there's a little there are things you say, and then you kinda do then you read your board. This is a bill that our committee took up for this, this, and that reason, and we think it's solving this and that problem. And here's why we're doing it. And, you know, here's what we these are the people we heard from, and thank you. So and we ask for your support. So it's kinda your pitch, but there are certain things you have to say. And then everybody's read the bill, the actual language that is gonna appear in the calendar for members to follow along, the actual statutory language. [Scott Campbell ]: What the drill says. And I can share Yes. Carol it works out of OD has wrote some wrote some years ago that she has shared around, and I have a copy of that, but I'll share with you about how how do you structure [Speaker 1 ]: a floor report? And this document also at the end provides some cheat sheet notes on how to give a floor report as well. It's a couple. [Kathleen James ]: We'll all be helping each other. This is not something we do alone. [Speaker 1 ]: So in addition to and I'm sure I'm cognizant of the time. Yes. So ten forty five, I think, is I've worked. I just wanna make sure I'm giving you enough time. I'm not going over it. But in addition to explaining the committee report on the floor, the bill reporter is also gonna be asked to provide the committee's straw poll vote on any subsequent committee reports or individual member amendments that would impact the contents of the bill within the committee's jurisdiction. We call it a straw poll vote because once you vote it out, you no longer have possession. So it's more of an informal vote that is seeking, that is meant to present the committee's opinion on any amendments, that are so subsequently recommended that's are within your committee's jurisdiction. And so, for example, if there is members have a right to offer amendments to a bill on the floor. And if your committee hasn't heard that amendment yet, we're on the floor, and it involves your committee's jurisdiction, the house's standard practice is to take a recess so the committee can hear the amendment from the individual rep or one or more reps offering the amendment. So the house can hear your committee's strawful vote. What is your committee's opinion on the amendment that's offered? [Scott Campbell ]: Gotcha. Wouldn't it be better practice to have amendments done before we pass the bill to [Speaker 1 ]: To me, [Scott Campbell ]: that's that's a better that's a stronger bill. [Kathleen James ]: It is a good question. [Speaker 1 ]: That that is great. I'll just know one thing though is that, really, there is a significance to debate on the floor. And so sometimes on second reading, there will be debate on your committee's recommended amendments, and something will come up during debate. That's what the purpose of the debate is for. It's not an empty exercise. Something sometimes something will come up or a member might say, but wait. Did you consider x y z? The member might think that there needs to be amendment to address x y z. And so it is member's right to offer amendment after a third reading. And so that'll be a case where your committee would be turned to to [Christopher Howland ]: give your straw a full vote. [Scott Campbell ]: I I guess I was misunderstanding because I was thinking just any amendment within committee. [Speaker 1 ]: Oh, yes. That's honestly, we've made on the floor. [Scott Campbell ]: I I [Speaker 1 ]: think that's important to you. But sometimes I can also tell you sometimes you will have put so much work into a bill in committee, and then you all voted out your committee report. And then even then, sometimes something will come up where a member or maybe another member outside of the committee will say, but will your committee consider this? The committee might think, oh, wow. Actually, that's a great point. So at that point, if you members of the committee do wanna offer an amendment to address that separate issue, because you no longer have possession of the bill, it would need to be the individual members who agree with the amendment would sponsor an amendment to could be your committee report or the bill itself. And that's the individual members because you no longer have possession of the note. You voted it out. You reported it out. So, individual members of the committee can also offer an amendment after you've already voted out your committee report. Alright. [Scott Campbell ]: Thank you. [Speaker 1 ]: Thank you. Alright. One more [Bert Bailey ]: clarifying question about [Scott Campbell ]: are you on this one? [Speaker 1 ]: Yeah. So, you know, as an [Speaker 7 ]: independent observer of this process over the years, it is often considered friendly. They you know, things are friendly amendments or not friendly amendments. So friendly amendment is something that the committee supports. And so if another committee or another member comes to the chair [Speaker 1 ]: or you, and then you go to the chair and say, [Speaker 7 ]: oh my gosh. There's this thing. And then our committee says, you're right, and it comes out of our committee. That is often considered a friendly amendment as opposed to somebody standing up on the floor. Sometimes I offer unfriendly amendments that, you know, the committee does not support as an individual member. So there's a difference a lot of times in how the body perceives them. [Speaker 1 ]: It doesn't the body can do what they want [Christopher Howland ]: Sure. Either way. But [Kathleen James ]: yeah. Just a quick [Scott Campbell ]: clarifying question with that. What if the result isn't that we want to initiate an amendment, but we wanna get more testimony on that suggestion from another member? [Speaker 1 ]: Sure. Well, there's always the ability to move to postpone action. So say you heard additional information after the bill was there the second time. We've already gone through second reading. The next legislative day is third reading. But, woah, that member really raised a great point. We need to discuss it more. You might not be ready for the bill to go to third reading or have third reading the bill. So in those cases, there is always option to move to postpone action until the committee has had enough time to thoroughly consider the point that was raised. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So just a note here too. So if the bill makes it across the house finish line and the house passes the bill, the bill report is also gonna follow the bill through its process and then explain to the house any proposals of amendment the senate has messaged back to the house and the committees, again, Straub will vote on the committee's recommendations to how to act on the senate [Christopher Howland ]: proposal amendment. [Speaker 1 ]: So then chair, this is where we get to the point of the document where I start highlighting really important points. [Kathleen James ]: And bold. Highlight and long caps. Okay. So this is the real nuts and [Speaker 1 ]: bolts part here of how do we get this committee report to our office so it gets on the notice calendar and can actually get considered by the house. So here we go. Before the house can consider a bill and the committee report, it's the bill reporter's obligation to deliver the committee report to the clerk's office so that nine year old who creates our calendar can enter your bill on the notice calendar. And we accept committee reports electronically. We used to have this system where we would actually hand out the original bill along with an index card that was a receipt, and the clerk staff would go up to the committee chair or clerk and say, will you sign [Kathleen James ]: this invoice card and the receipt [Speaker 1 ]: that you received the bill? And then you'd actually have to hand in the paper copy of the bill, and you've actually reported it out along with your committee report on paper. We pivoted during COVID to all electronic operations, and this is one of operations, and this is one of an a lesson learned where we are continuing to accept committee reports electronically, and we do that by email. So we ask that the bill reporter deliver the committee report by email to our office email address, which is house underscore staff at ledge dot state dot b t dot u s so that we're all aware we're all we are all aware that this committee report has come in. Look at this old, highlighted, capitalized language. It's gotta be and please, please, please, it has to be the final edited version. Please do not turn into our office a draft committee report. It still needs to go through editing by legislative counsel because it's not your official committee report. You cannot turn in a draft committee report because we're gonna pull it into the calendar, and it could have all these different mistakes and edits, and that's what's gonna get pulled into the calendar. And then when you're on the floor, people are gonna say, what is this? And you're gonna say, oh my gosh. It was an unedited version. Please please don't do that. Please ensure that the what you turn into our office is the final edited version. Is that good to go? I think that got it. So here's the things that we're looking for. Please don't a committee report is not final or edited if it has highlighting, underline strikethrough. No. That makes no sense. Please, please, please make sure it's the final edited version. And, also, just to note here, it's the bill reporter by rule who who's the one responsible to deliver the committee report to our office, so we could only accept the committee report from the bill reporter. We can't accept it from your wonderful committee assistant even though Jack may be helping you on to get the language right, but we have to have them to designate a bill reporter. Yeah. So here's what you have to provide in that email. Confirmation that representative. Howland and Rutland Town say I'm the bill reporter for bill x y z. And your type of committee report, usually, it's those two types. If it's favorable, you say I'm recording the bill favorably. That means you're not recommending any amendments to the bill as you received it. If it's favorable with amendment, you say favorable with amendment, and you gotta attach the amendment. We need to have the amendment. If Nigel gets an email that says favorable with amendment and there's no amendment, you're gonna get a follow-up email from Nigel saying, but where is the amendment? Also, that vote on the committee report. Again, if it's favorable amendment, that means your second vote on actually voting the bill out. You'll also be hearing from our office every day asking if you have any committee reports to deliver. Our standard practice is to let us know by three thirty on normal days. If we don't get a response back indicating that you have a committee report, we're gonna just presume you don't have anything to report that day, and so we are not going to be waiting on you to deliver a committee report. No response means, alright, House Energy and Digital Infrastructure does not have anything to report. [Kathleen James ]: Yeah. Are you Yeah. [Speaker 1 ]: I had my head up first. [Kathleen James ]: I I just wanted to confirm. I I believe Nigel is asking to hear from us every day either way. Right? [Speaker 7 ]: Okay. And just clarifying that committees so the chair could say, madam clerk, we anticipate voting a bill out of that four thirty Yes. Or at six PM tonight. Yes. Can you hold the calendar appropriately? Totally. [Speaker 1 ]: And we will. And you will. And we thank you, representative. Because if we get that message, then we're gonna be there waiting. And waiting. And waiting because you told us that you are gonna have a committee report, and we are going to be there. And if the committee actually decided, oh, we don't want to we decided not to, we'll take it up tomorrow. We're going home, but you didn't tell the church about us. We're still gonna be there waiting. And then we're going to start to try to hunt you down. And we might be cranky. And you don't wanna see us cranky. Please. Please. Please. Please. The other highlighted language, you should deliver the committee report to us as soon as you have the final edited version ready, and let us know if any of your plans changed. If you decide if you need a little bit more time, you're not gonna ultimately vote it out today. Let us know. Then we know we can go home to start our the rest of our evening. But, please, just emphasizing here at the bottom of the page, please know reporters, the ones who are responsible for communicating this with us. Please monitor your email to answer any follow-up clarifying questions about your committee report. For example, if you tell us it's favorable with amendment, but you didn't include an amendment, Nigel will say, where is the amendment? And we really need you to respond to those emails. Please monitor your email, and you won't know that it's actually received until you get a confirmation email from Nigel. So really, really, really monitor. You're really responsible for monitoring and being key to consent with us, letting us know and waiting for us to confirm that you're good to go. You don't know that you're good to go until Nigel says you're good to go. [Scott Campbell ]: Alright. One more copy. [Nigel ]: And very busy days around crossover, end of the session. I will reply to every email I get as far as calendar stuff goes, but it may take me some time to chew through all the backlog. If you have emailed me and say, here's our report and you want to get out of the building, feel free to come by the office and or up to our desk and say, hey, Nigel. Did you get the email? And I will look for your email, and I will let you know if I got it, and then you're off the hook until we either have a conversation or I email you back. Mhmm. Please don't leave anything. You can just be like, I'm done. Okay. That's all. Thank you. Mhmm. [Speaker 1 ]: So we will just about to wrap up here. I'll just note here that committee bills are slightly are a different process. Basically, if you think about committee bills, they're treated the same as an individual member bill. They don't get reported to our office. It has to go to drafting ops because drafting ops puts it in an official sale format. It's like what you do for signing out your individual member bills. And so there's a separate process there. If you're actually going to have a committee bill, you send it to drafting ops. The chair has to confirm. But we appreciate knowing about the committee bills. If you can remember to include us on your email when you actually submit that committee bill, draft the drafting ops to let us know that it's coming, and also who will be the bill recorder. That just helps us prepare. But it has to go directly to drafting ops so you can act they actually put in bill official bill format. The last thing I provided here, madam chair, is just instructions on how to provide a floor report. So going to representative Campbell's, comments earlier, these are just some notes on how you do a floor report when you're the bill reporter and you're actually responsible for going out there on the house floor and explaining your committee report to the chamber. So we just provided some notes on how to go about doing that with a mock bill about cats and dogs, my favorite topics. And so, basically, I we've provided draft script here just based on these mock bills. But big picture, what you have to be doing in a floor report is generally describe the bill that was referred or committed to your committee. Here's some mock text based on this bill you'll see in a moment. Secondly, generally describe generally describe what your committee considered in reviewing the bill and your committee's recommendations for the bill, including noting whether it's favorable or favorable for amendment. And then walk through your committee report. That's actually going through the language if you have an amendment. It's incorporating your recommended amendments into the bill as it was as your committee considered it. And then describe the entities standard practice is describe the entities from which you took testimony, convey your committee vote on the committee report, and ask for the body support as you were describing earlier, madam chair. So this little italicized text is for a mock bill about introduced by representative K9 of Canaan about dogs and cats, the best pet being dogs. But then you'll see your committee report, mock committee report, offered by represent feline of Harrisburg. Ultimately, this committee said that they're both the best pets. So if you wanna have just something a reference guide for how to give a floor report. Representative Howard? Fire, they're out underlining this. Excellent. Okay. So this is just a made up bill. Here's the bill that's introduced. It's a fake bill, and this would be, adding to statutory law. So all this new underlying language, a new statute describing the best pet and an appropriation to support this new designation. So that's all new language that would be added to law. And then you'll see in this mock committee report, this is an example of a structure of instances of amendment to a bill as introduced. So it starts by the first instance of amendment with strikeout. The bill is introduced section one, and certainly there of a new section one to describe the and cats are equally the best pets, and then the second instance of amendment here would amend section two. So a lot of times, they could have instances of amendment like this one structure, or you can do a strike off. A strike off means striking out all of the bill text and having a whole new bill text proposed. Just noting here when you look at the calendar, the only thing that ever appears in the calendar are recommended amendments. You never see the bill as introduced. So if there are many amendments recommended to a bill, that's often my committee will use a strike all because it'd be very difficult to see a bunch of individual amendments. You know, fifty two instances of amendment would be very difficult to understand, so that's when the strike all is helpful. But if there's only a few minute recommended amendments to the bill, then often it's better to use instances of amendment just so the changes that are recommended could be isolated so you can more clearly see them. But it's never the bill is introduced. Let's turn it in the calendar, only recommended amendments. So you really have to be looking at the bill that was introduced, the separate doc, and then compare that to what's recommended in the calendar. Okay. Question. [Kathleen James ]: Is it rule or protocol? Does one need to vote to have voted for a bill in committee in order to be the form reporter? [Speaker 1 ]: I don't think that your rule prescribes who can be the bill recorder. It's just the person designated by the chair. I think in practice, you know, you want your bill reporter to be supporting the language that's being offered. Mhmm. And [Kathleen James ]: that was that was one thing. When we get a bill too, we'll we'll talk about that. But in general and this is, again, just what I've seen during my my time in the house. I mentioned on our first day that I think success and the best bills come out of our committee unanimously. So our biggest wins are gonna be nine zero bills. But sometimes, we spend weeks taking testimony and we go through multiple revisions, and there's a member who just can't they're just not gonna support it. And a bill may come out eight one or seven two. And I've not seen committees relitigate those battles on the floor. In other words, the committee brings a bill to the floor whether it's unanimous or not, and we are asking for your support. You know, we have done our work. We have taken testimony. We've come to the best consensus we can. We have everybody on board, or we have not quite everybody on board, but here is our work. And I I have not seen any way a sort of waste the time of the body in watching committees fight with each other once it gets to the floor. Right? Like, we don't start bringing amendments that we've already talked about and rejected your committee. Yet? [Speaker 1 ]: There's nothing stopping a member of of the committee from doing so, but the practice is usually does not. [Kathleen James ]: Okay. Practice versus versus rule. Right. Great. Thanks, Raquel. [Christopher Howland ]: Does that mean that if something was a five four by committee that we would not have a minority report? [Kathleen James ]: We don't we don't do minority reports. So So it's a I'm sorry to interrupt. No. [Christopher Howland ]: So it's just it comes out of committee five four and it just gets or four four well, I can't go out four four and zero. [Kathleen James ]: Right. [Christopher Howland ]: Right. So so if it goes out five four or some variation, that's just the out of committee report by the what the vote of the committee was going on. [Kathleen James ]: Yeah. And everybody on the floor knows, wow, that was close. Right? So, you know and that floor debate will ensue. But in in general, I I think I'm talking more procedurally. Again, practice versus rule, but but you don't often see you don't often see committees offering amendments at cross purposes to whatever our our vote has been. It's so it's considered to be that we've had our time and we've done our work, and it was a slam dunk vote or it was a closer vote, and this is what we this is what won the day, democratically. [Christopher Howland ]: So if a legislation had referred to a committee Mhmm. But then had another committee that we sent it, that the originating committee sent it to judicial anything. Mhmm. And there's no report of what the committee was sent to. They they would report out. They come back to our committee and then get reports out of our committee. [Kathleen James ]: But, Jan, that's a great question. [Speaker 1 ]: So let's say use that's a great example. So let's say this committee reports out a bill, and then it gets committed to the level, hypothetically, judiciary committee. The judiciary committee is gonna be looking at the bill of introduced plus this committee's report. And I like to think of it I always think of food references. So I always think of it like a layer cake. As the bill moves along, every committee, review of the bill, every subsequent committee review, it's, like, layered on top. So that judiciary committee in that hypo is gonna be looking at the bill as introduced and then what this committee recommended. And that's what they're gonna actually have in their possession. Is let's say that this committee had a strike all. That judiciary committee is gonna be looking at your strike all. And then if they wanted to pursue the bill, they would vote out a committee report likely with a recommended amendment to this committee strike all. And then they would vote that out with their own committee report vote. And then when it came time on the floor for the house to hear from each committee that has possession of the bill in their committee report, the judiciary committee is gonna give their core report and provide their vote on their committee report, and then the speaker is gonna turn to the bill reporter from this committee to ask for this committee's straw poll vote on that judiciary committee's recommended amendments to your committee report. Did I [Kathleen James ]: answer your Okay. Simple. Right? [Speaker 1 ]: No. Yeah. I think I followed that, but, yeah, [Christopher Howland ]: the layer cake was [Speaker 1 ]: a I like the one. Cake and that. [Scott Campbell ]: And it can get really confusing about Yeah. If you have multiple amendments or multiple if it goes through multiple committees and each committee has another amendment and then you which matter are you voting on? You know? The speaker will try to clarify it. Is she? [Christopher Howland ]: Yeah. But if it got referred to judicial and judicial had no action, then that layer [Speaker 1 ]: is not taken to the floor. Yeah. Because the judiciary committee could say, we don't want this bill to move forward. And so it will just hang on judiciary committee's wall if they didn't vote it out. So it would just hang there. Now there is an option and rules for, it's to make a motion on the floor that a committee be released so you can get it out of there. Don't see that that often if a committee doesn't wanna the subsequent committee doesn't wanna pursue it and they want it to hang on the wall. Often, it will just hang there. [Christopher Howland ]: Then how to so we send something to judiciary and they choose not to take it up. There's a procedure that we can grab [Speaker 1 ]: it back per se. You'd have to make a somebody would need to make a motion on the floor to relieve judiciary of the bill so that the bill can come back into the houses too. Motion. Yeah. And so, actually, in practice, sometimes where you would see this more often is a bill gets voted out, reported out of the policy committee, and then it has to be referred to a money committee. And the money committee might just not report the bill out because of whatever fiscal issue. So that is probably a more real life example of a bill not proceeding. [Kathleen James ]: Representative Bailey? [Bert Bailey ]: Yeah. I have a question regarding so if we put an amendment to the bill, you're saying that is not included in what comes to the floor in the bill we give to you? [Speaker 1 ]: In your your committee report, you're actually your committee's recommended amendment? Is that what you're asking? Well I'm [Bert Bailey ]: trying to so we decide we take a bill off the wall, and we've gotta add an amendment to it favorable. Yes. But the new write up doesn't have the old write up with the new amendment in it, or are we just devoting on the amendment on the floor? [Speaker 1 ]: So your committee would report out your amendment to the bill and your your committee amendment and what gets printed in the calendar. And then the house would have to vote on whether to amend the bill with your committee's recommended amendment. [Bert Bailey ]: Okay. But it's not in with the original language. That doesn't happen unless the vote is voted favorably on the floor. [Speaker 1 ]: Yes. Exactly. Okay. Because the committee only makes only recommends amendments, and the house has to actually agree to make the committee's recommended amendments. Okay. Nailed it. [Kathleen James ]: Great. Quick sorry. Quick question. We we are the committee that goes long. I'm gonna start off getting that in my mind. Yeah. [Christopher Howland ]: Or a [Graham Kloepner ]: a parliamentary question, so maybe I didn't agree. But can you quickly tell us which motions require a second and which do not? [Speaker 1 ]: You don't have to have a second. [Nigel ]: On anything? [Speaker 1 ]: Anything. Okay. You don't. Yeah. That's it's in Mason's manual. Seconds are not required. So any member can make a motion, and then you don't need the second to be able to vote on that motion. You'll see seconds a lot in nominations more often. And sometimes members will make will second a motion in committee, but a second's not required. Thank you. Yeah. Just one moment. Thank you. [Bert Bailey ]: So what what vote is required if it just gets killed in committee? Just [Speaker 1 ]: You just don't even have to take a vote. Yeah. Now let's hang up there. Okay. Yeah. [Scott Campbell ]: You just look at the chair's face. [Kathleen James ]: But yeah. If a bill doesn't if a bill doesn't leave our committee because we don't we don't have the votes to pass it out, it's [Christopher Howland ]: Good. It goes back on the law. [Speaker 1 ]: It doesn't come off the law. [Kathleen James ]: It doesn't come off the law. [Christopher Howland ]: Okay. So we saw it. It doesn't per se come off the law for for discussion. [Kathleen James ]: Yeah. We could we could take we could have ledge counsel do a walk through, and we could take weeks of testimony or or a couple of days of testimony and go around the table and have a little chitchat and realize that there's eight people in this room that are gonna vote no. And that's kinda [Scott Campbell ]: No problem. [Kathleen James ]: That's kinda the end of it because you don't there's not a whole lot of point just in terms of a workplace. You know, there's not a whole lot of point in we don't bring bills to the floor that we don't support. We don't that's a waste of everybody's time. And so if there's not the votes to get it out of committee here, that's that's that's that. [Christopher Howland ]: So report to somebody inquiring because we're members of this committee. The reply would be it's not being considered or remains on the wall or Yeah. [Kathleen James ]: We took testimony, and we don't have the votes to get it out. I tell my constituents that all the time. You know? Here. Yep. Got it. We don't we don't have the votes. We should allow Tucker to and we can talk about this so much more. I'm sure this will come up. But thank you so much. You too. Yeah. It was very informative. Thank you. Pardon? Are folks okay to go straight to the council, or do we need to take a five minute break? I think we do. [Scott Campbell ]: Can we take a [Kathleen James ]: five minute break? Okay. Jack

Play Clip Play Full Video Pause

SmartTranscript of House Energy and Digital Infrastructure- 2025-01-17- 10:15am

This is useful for seeing what happened at the meeting without wading through the whole transcript: