Grassroots-Driven Legislation
Last week I wrote about the challenge faced by those legislators who sponsor legislation on behalf of the "grassroots." These are the bills which are based on a legislator's interaction with his constituency. They aren't requested by a lobbyist or a government agency; instead, they are common sense suggestions from those who live and deal with government from the citizen's perspective.
Each year, legislators file hundreds of new bills. As the custodian of your vote in the Legislature, it's my challenge to analyze these bills and judge them through the lens of specific and consistent criteria by which I can explain my vote to you.
As I review the legislation, I place an emphasis on finding bad bills which I will vote against. These include new attempts to grow the size of government, increase regulation, raise taxes or fees, or which might create new processes that will be subject to corruption or undue influence of special influence groups.
I also like to find new ideas and concepts which do the reverse: make government smaller, more efficient and transparent.
Good ideas easily incubate in the House of Representatives. Because State Representatives are up for re-election every two years, they are close to the people they represent.
Many times, good ideas first appear in House legislation because constituents contact their Representative with the idea and ask them to sponsor it. As the Representative is constantly up for re-election, he must give the idea due consideration because he is subject to the election process soon after the legislative session concludes.
Thus, about this time of year, those who appreciate reform-minded ideas can find them by perusing the list of recently filed House bills. This search will turn up innovative ideas that have not previously been considered.
Even though they may be a good idea, these proposals will likely fail to become law. It's not easy for a "grassroots-driven" bill to become law because, unlike the other bills, there isn't a lobbyist to ensure its passage, or a state government agency working the vote.
Those bills that are successful depend on the long-term commitment of legislators. Without our attention, these ideas can easily disappear and never have a chance at success.
I always want to do my part to highlight and support those "grassroots-driven" good ideas.
