There are 80 members of the Assembly and 40 members in the State Senate. These members are commonly known as legislators or lawmakers in the press. When a legislator “writes” a bill, he or she is known as the “author” of the bill. Any legislator may introduce a bill. Some bills are the product of the author, that is, the legislator is the source of the bill. When a special interest groups asks a legislator to author a bill, the bill is known as a “sponsored” bill, meaning the special interest group is identified as the source of the bill idea.
A bill must pass the Senate and the Assembly in the same form before it is sent to the Governor who may sign it into law, or veto it, or allow it to become law without a signature. Bills affecting collision repair will go through one, two, or three policy committees in each house of the Legislature. Each house has an insurance committee which hears bills that require insurers to do something. If an ARD is required to do something, the bill goes to the Business and Professions committee in either house. If the bill affects a contract such as the contract to repair, the bill will also go to the Judiciary committee of either house after first going to either the Insurance Committee or the Business and Professions Committee. Sometimes bills are head by the Appropriations Committee in either house if the bills requires the state to spend money. Bills affecting collision repair rarely affect state spending.
Once a bill is approved by the policy committees in one house of the Legislature, it goes to the floor of the house(the Senate if the bill has been approved by Senate committees and the Assembly if approved by Assembly committees) where typically a majority vote (21 in the Senate and 41 in the Assembly) is required for passage. When a bill is approved on the Senate floor, for example, it then goes to the Assembly policy committee and is acted on until it reaches the Assembly floor for a majority vote. If the Senate version of the bill is amended in the Assembly and approved by a majority vote of the Assembly, it then, then must return to the Senate for a vote on what is called “concurrence.” On concurrence votes, the full Senate, when considering Assembly amendments, must approve of the changes made in the Assembly. The bottom line is the same bill has to be approved in both houses. The full Assembly votes on concurrence when an Assembly bill has been amended in the Senate. When a bill is successful in winning concurrence approval, it then goes to the Governor for his consideration.
If a bill passes the Senate and then goes through the Assembly without any changes, it goes directly to the Governor. The same is true if an Assembly bill goes through the Senate without any changes.
The schedule of when bills may be heard is sometimes difficult to follow, but usually there is one to two weeks’ notice of when a bill will be heard. However, following the changes to a bill may be very difficult. Usually, a bill is amended one week prior to a hearing. Sometimes, the bill may be amended three days prior to a hearing and at times a bill may be heard as “proposed to amended,” that is, the author of the bill will offer changes to the bill at the hearing. In almost all cases the committee issues an analysis that will reflect any amendments to the bill, including those offered at a hearing. Unfortunately, the public is usually not able to view the committee analysis until one day before the hearing.
Finally, bills have to meet certain deadlines. In 2009 bills that require state spending have to be approved by all policy committees in the house of origin (Senate bills introduced in the Senator, or Assembly bills introduced in the Assembly) by May 1. If the bill doesn’t spend money—most of the measures affecting collision repair—the bills have to approved by May 15 by the policy committees in the house of origin. The deadline for bills passing policy committees in the opposite house is July 10.
Given the large number of bills that go through the Legislature and the ongoing need to amend these bills by set deadlines, it is understandable, although not defensible, that chaos reigns. Bills are living documents, that is, they are constantly undergoing revisions. If you oppose a bill, you might consider the measure to be a moving target requiring numerous shots to slow it down until it becomes either reasonable policy, or another dead idea.
The Governor has called the legislative process “dysfunctional.” While the CRA agrees with the Governor’s assessment, the acknowledgement does not alter the fact that the CRA and its members must respond to both good and bad policy proposals. We cannot afford to sit idly by and watch our right to do business be eroded by special interests with their own agendas. Please participate. Check this web information regularly.
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