Senate Bill 167 "An Act relating to introduction of measures in the legislature; and providing for an effective date.” - and - SCR 18 “Proposing amendments to the Uniform Rules of the Alaska State Legislature relating to the introduction of measures; and providing for an effective date for the amendments.”
Click for PDF: http://www.akdemocrats.org/sponsor/SB167_SCR18_ss_sen_guess.pdfThe purpose of these two bills is to eliminate committee bills, and allow only sixty-one people to introduce legislation: sixty legislators and the Governor. No other entity could introduce legislation.
Currently, each member or members of the legislature can introduce bills. Additionally, any committee can introduce bills with the majority of the committee members agreement. Governor's bills are introduced by the Rules Committee.
These bills would streamline the process and make the process more transparent to voters. If an idea is good enough for introduction, it should have an individual and individual's name on the bill. To voters looking in from the outside, committee bills are confusing - people do not know who is placing the idea for consideration and often all members of committee are considered co-sponsors (whether they agree with the bill or not).
Although at one time committee bills may have had a purpose in our process, I believe it is time to reevaluate the process. We should do all we can to make the legislative process clear to all Alaskans. I believe these bills provide a good first step.
I would appreciate your consideration of these bills.