A Bill goes through a long process to become a law as we have seen in many “School House Rock Videos” as a young child. There are many obstacles that are not explicitly stated but simply inferred though traditional or a political norm. I have come to encounter this very detailed and complex cycle in my two years of internship at the Kentucky state capitol. One metaphor that is commonly used when talking about the creation of a bill and what it goes through to become law it that of a sausage being made. “There are two things you don’t want to see being made-sausage and legislation (Rosenthal 346).”
When a bill is first drafted it often times can be too narrow only telling the logistics of the bill not going into detail or specifics. In the book Engines of Democracy there is a large section on the complexity and detail that a bill must have before it is sent to the floor. To go from this broad generalization to a complex form of legislation “scrutiny and modification in the committee (Rosenthal 363)” is required. One example seen of this during the session this time was when Senate President David Williams had half of his interns working on a piece of Education legislation dealing with homeschoolers. This legislation was thoroughly scrutinized and followed with a conclusion that more information was needed before an effective vote can be taken on it.
Other factors that can affect a bill in an indirect way are truly political for instance they are partisan conflict- sometimes conflict between the House and the Senate, and disputes between the Executive and Legislative. One example of Partisan conflict is between the House and the Senate for the Kentucky General Assembly. The House is controlled by the Democrats and the Senate is controlled by the Republicans. This alone makes the normal conflicts that agreeing legislatures might have even more strong. For example, members of the House are allowed more leeway to specialize because they have less responsibility. This is a huge difference I have discovered this spring internship. When I was in the House there were many discussions on the issues at hand on the contrary in the Senate constituent population is larger and there is less senators to distribute the legislation too. The Senate and the House rival for influence, especially when it comes to dealing with money such as the budget.
One of the biggest rivalries and stopping point for many bills last year was when it was required for the Executive and Legislative branches to compromise. This session I have yet to encounter any large legislation that has caused the two branches to split on their vote and their support but the budget has yet to be finalized so I believe there will be some division. The Senate President and the Speaker of the House can be just as powerful as the governor as we send from time to time last session. I believe this session, because of the compromise being seen so far, the partisan conflicts in each individual assembly and between the two branches will be minimum.
Source:
Rosenthal, Alan. Engines of Democracy: Politics and Policymaking in State Legislatures. Eagleton Institute of Politics-Rutgers University. 2009.
