This article provided by The Herald-Dispatch

July 26, 2008

Analysis finds lawmaker floor sessions focused

The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) _ West Virginia's Legislature spent hours on the House and Senate floors this year naming some three dozen bridges, honoring sports teams and welcoming such wide-ranging visitors to the Capitol as home-schoolers, soft drink distributors and the West Virginia Grange.

But delegates and senators spent many more hours during the 60-day regular session debating and voting on legislation addressing teacher pensions, environmental protections for streams, drug abuse and future funding for PROMISE scholarships, an analysis by The Associated Press found.

Conventional wisdom holds that lawmakers fritter away their daily floor sessions on ceremony and pomp, focusing mostly on endorsing nonbinding memorial resolutions, backslapping guests and delivering long-winded speeches.

But an AP survey of both the House and Senate floors sessions shows that legislators spent two-thirds of their time on the key task assigned them by voters: to craft, advance and vote on bills.

"For the people sitting in the galleries, it may seem like the floor sessions aren't devoting much time to any one bill," admits Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth, R-Mercer. "But for the members, a lot of work has already been done."

The session's opening days in January were heavy on ceremony, as bills had only started the legislative process. But by the time lawmakers gaveled out in March, the House and Senate had each spent an average of 78 minutes per day in their respective chambers. The largest chunk of that time, about a half-hour, was spent on the period reserved for the reading of bills.

The actual reading of each bill is almost always waived; lawmakers instead debated and amended the legislation, with sponsors often fielding questions from colleagues. The next-longest span of time in each floor session, about 21 minutes per day, was spent on the related tasks of accepting messages and reports regarding legislation. These came from committees, the other chamber or even the governor, and also frequently sparked debates and question and answer sessions among lawmakers.

Julie Archer of Citizen Action Group says the public perception is that lawmakers spend more time on fluff than substance.

"A big part of that may be that when people go to the Legislature and go to a floor session, a lot of that fluff comes at the beginning," she said.

During the typical floor session, lawmakers also spent:

—11 minutes daily greeting guests. Each day of a session has its honorary special interest group, sometimes more than one. Guests this year included title-winning high school teams and several West Virginia University football players after their Fiesta Bowl victory;

—8 minutes receiving memorial resolutions and citizen petitions. The latter usually urged action on a given issue. Of the resolutions, 36 asked the Division of Highways to name bridges, usually after community leaders and residents killed or decorated in action;

—5 minutes on speeches from members, separate from debates over bills.

Both the House and Senate also begin each daily floor session with a prayer, and these sometimes became elaborate affairs. Both chambers hosted several gospel singers, including one aided by a karaoke machine and another who urged senators, "Let's get some church up in this state!"

Legislative Manager Aaron Allred said the findings underscore his belief that the majority of senators and delegates treat floor sessions "extremely seriously." After all, each day of a session costs $33,500 just for legislative salaries.

"They listen to the debate, especially if it involves a bill that went through a committee that they did not serve on," Allred said. "The floor session is there first chance to ask a question about that bill."

While applying a stopwatch to the daily floor sessions may offer one sign of the Legislature's productivity, it is not the only one, said Tim Storey, an analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"There's so much of it that goes on in the legislator's office, in the committee room," Storey said. "It's the small minority of bills that get extensive floor debate."

House Majority Whip Mike Caputo agrees with Storey's assessment.

"Everybody is extremely busy during the 60 days. When they're not in committee, they're dealing with questions from constituents," said