Ethics, the floor vote

The House omnibus ethics bill (HB109) is headed for the floor on Monday. It’s a beefy bill, 38 pages of requirements for and prohibitions on the behavior of legislators, lobbyists, candidates and public officials. The bill has a few problems – for one, it makes it almost impossible for legislators who are lawyers to practice law – and some significant omissions – it’s still okay for lobbyists to buy legislators dinner, for example – but overall it’s an improvement.

It’s also not finished. Whatever bill the House passes will be reviewed by the Senate, which is likely to have some different opinions. That could easily put the bill into a conference committee.

And none of this does what I think really needs to be done on ethics, which is to change the culture here. But that’s an unspectacular, one-step-at-a-time process that won’t make headlines. I’m trying to do my part, and hopefully others will join in as time goes on.

Time has come today

Also on the House floor on Monday is the bill to change legislative procedures to accommodate a 90-day session (HB171). The more I see of this the more convinced I am that a 90-day session is a really bad idea. It’s going to result in less public involvement, less legislative review and, frankly, worse legislation passing.

We ain’t making widgets here. The legislative process is cumbersome, arcane and inefficient. It is supposed to be, because it is designed to keep bills from passing – and to make sure that bills that do pass are acceptable to voting majorities in both the House and Senate, and, in the end, the governor. And to make sure that interested members of the public can understand and keep track of what’s going on. All of that takes time, and I’m worried that 90 days isn’t enough time for us to do the job we need to do.

Regardless, we appear to be trying to figure out a way to have a 90-day session next year, and I’ll do my best to make it work. I’m just not hopeful it will.

AGIA is changing

The powerful House Special Committee on Oil and Gas, of which I am a powerful member, finished its three-week-long public hearing on the governor’s Alaska Gasline Inducement Act on Thursday. It was a three-week education on the natural gas business for me, and I know enough now to be dangerous. We got a draft committee substitute this morning, and as I write this the committee is in the middle of having the Commissioner of Revenue explain the bill.

This is a very unusual way to proceed, if you care about things like the legislative process, but I’m hopeful that I will be able to (a) understand the new bill and (b) figure out what other changes, if any, I think we should make.

No matter what we do in this committee, there will be plenty left for the other House committees to do, and for the Senate, which is working on its own version. But it’s still possible for us to pass the bill before the session ends. Will we? Who knows?

One thing I can tell you for sure, though: If this were a 90-day session, we’d have 16 days left, and there’s no way on God’s green earth we could finish with AGIA by then.

Don’t forget to vote

There’s a city election in Anchorage on Tuesday, and a statewide advisory vote on same-sex benefits. If you haven’t voted, do. I’m voting against changing the constitution to prevent state workers from getting benefits for their same-sex partners, and here’s why. To my absolute amazement, Paul Jenkins agrees with me. Here’s what he has to say.

Constituents, come on out

If you live in my district, or the districts of Rep. Lindsey Holmes or Sen. Hollis French, you’re invited to come share pizza and opinions with us tomorrow from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Spenard Rec Center. There will be a professional clown in attendance for the kiddies, so bring the family.

Best Wishes,