Danny Becker
We previously reported on an ongoing battle over legislation that would limit the number of bills a delegate could bring each session. The “Showdown of the Session” continued as Senator Andrew Bell brought his bill before the House of Representatives.
As expected, the bill was met with fierce opposition from one representative in particular. Representative Brandon Swearengin made a promise to the senator that the bill would not pass through the House, a promise that he referred to several times and strongly intended to keep.
“I believe this bill is undue regulation upon our representatives and senators,” said Rep. Swearengin. “We should not be placing maximums on the number of bills legislators should be allowed to bring.”
As mentioned in previous coverage of this bill, Rep. Swearengin authored 26 pieces of legislation this session, and he believes the bill may be targeting him.
“I actually love a lot of Rep. Swearengin’s bills. I really admire his creativity and expertise in writing bills,” said Sen. Bell. The bill was originally authored last session by Representative Emeritus Tristen Prado, in an effort to target himself, as he had written over 25 bills that session.
Sen. Bell maintains that the purpose of the bill is not to target Rep. Swearengin, or any delegate for that matter, but rather his intent was to ease the burden that such a high volume of bills from a single delegate puts on floor leaders, delegation chairs, and the Secretary of State without impeding on the overall experience provided to delegates at session.
“It’ll save a lot of paper,” said House Floor Leader Noah Murphy. “I’m already looking at about 300 pages of legislation per session just based on the number of representatives we have in the House,” said Floor Leader Murphy. Due to the high volume of bills being submitted, many of these bills already go unheard, and the paper they’re printed on goes to waste. Should this bill take effect, it will reduce said waste.
Debate was restricted to a one on one match up between Floor Leader Murphy and Rep. Swearengin. After this heated, passionate debate, the House voted to pass Sen. Bell’s bill by a vote of 54-12.
“I am disappointed that I was not able to keep my promise to the senator,” said Rep. Swearengin, regarding the passing of Sen. Bell’s bill. The bill is now headed back to the Senate for approval due to the passage of a hostile amendment by the House.
Though this was a big win for Sen. Bell and his bill, the “Showdown of the Session” is far from over. Stay tuned for further updates.