|
|
| |
| Wed, Dec. 3, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Legislative Council bill questioned Friday, Jan 26, 2007 By Doug Thompson LITTLE ROCK - Legislation to authorize the Legislative Council's executive subcommittee to meet while the Legislature is in session ran into heavy crossfire Thursday in the Senate. Senators repeatedly asked why the legislative body that oversees state government between sessions should meet while the Legislature is conducting business. Sen. Barbara Horn, D-Foreman, reminded colleagues that the members of the executive subcommittee have not been appointed and won't be until closer to the end of the session. Sen. Hank Wilkins IV, D-Pine Bluff, carried House Bill 1104 by Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro. Wilkins, who is co-chairman of the Legislative Council, announced before the debate he knew questions would be raised and was bringing the bill forward to hear senators' concerns. He later withdrew the bill and said he would bring it up for a vote later. When Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, suggested Wilkins "pull the bill down," Wilkins quipped: "I pulled it down before I ever put it up. You weren't listening." Thyer's bill, which previously passed the House, would allow the Legislative Council's executive subcommittee to meet if the House speaker and Senate president pro tem agreed that such a meeting was needed. The chief responsibility of the executive subcommittee is on personnel matters with the state Bureau of Legislative Research. The bureau's function, as the name implies, is as a fact-finding agency for the Legislature. In the past, the full Legislative Council has dealt with bureau personnel matters during the interim and subcommittees of the Joint Budget Committee took over during sessions, Thyer said in an interview Thursday afternoon. Two years ago, the Legislature created the council's executive subcommittee and gave it responsibility for all personnel matters with the bureau, Thyer said. This created a loophole because it took away the authority of the Joint Budget Committee during the session, he said. Without more legislation, the authority to handle personnel matters cannot revert to the Joint Budget Committee or go to the council's executive committee, which is not allowed to meet during a session, Thyer said. Thyer is House chairman of Joint Budget. His understanding was not the same as that of Sen. Shawn Womack, R-Mountain Home, the budget panel's Senate chairman. Womack expressed concern during the Senate debate that the bill would take discretion on personnel matters away from Joint Budget. Thyer said there were no pressing personnel matters in the bureau now, but that the lack of ability to deal with those issues for weeks or months should be addressed. For instance, he said, bureau director David Ferguson is an interim director following the departure of former director Tony Minicozzi. As the situation now stands, lawmakers cannot make Ferguson's appointment permanent nor hire a new director, Thyer said. |
