THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702240006
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Margaret Edds
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 85 lines
As a teacher, Deanna Golding of Chesapeake gets three paid, personal-leave days annually. This year, she used one when her son came home from Bosnia, one to visit a grandson in Illinois, and one to lobby the General Assembly.
The latter has left her fuming, for good reason. Her experience is one more in a galaxy of reasons why the Virginia Assembly needs to reorganize itself.
On Jan. 31 Golding, past president of the Tidewater Horse Council, traveled to Richmond to testify in favor of a ``Good Samaritan Law'' protecting from lawsuit individuals who help injured animals.
After investing time, effort, and money in the issue over several years, Golding was dismayed that members of the House Courts of Justice Committee talked or left the room during her testimony - or simply didn't show up for it. The proposal died without even a vote.
``They were extremely rude. They'd obviously made up their minds,'' said Golding.
More likely, the matter simply didn't dent their overtaxed, collective consciousness. Golding's treatment was so routine that many members would be startled by her dismay.
To give Virginia's 140 lawmakers their due, they are overworked. Big-time. Contrary to all-too-frequent appearances, most are not natural boors. Given a sane setting, most behave sanely.
However, what members too often forget during the winter frenzy is that they are servants, not masters of the people who come before them. What they appear to ignore, too, is that - while there may be a few superhuman egos in the crowd - members can't defy the laws of physics and nature.
They cannot, no matter how often their schedules might demand it, be in three places at one time. They cannot, no matter how arduously they might test the theory, operate without sleep. And they cannot in 45 or 60 or even 90 days dispose of more than 3,000 pieces of legislation and give each the attention it deserves.
That the problem has reached crisis proportions is evident in the complaints of members and in dozens of vignettes, some humorous, some appalling.
Among the former, one day last week Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, led his colleagues in rejecting Senate amendments to one of his bills. Unfortunately, it was the wrong bill.
Among the latter, a Senate panel with little apparent thought denied $50,000 in compensation to a Culpeper man wrongly imprisoned for 15 months. Only after press accounts brought the matter to light did it receive the attention so gross an injustice deserved.
The legislative leadership is not immune to the problem. ``For some reason, to me, this session seems more chaotic,'' said House Speaker Tom Moss, of Norfolk. ``It leaves me very hassled.''
More and more, there is talk of addressing the matter by extending the alternate-year, 45-day session to 60 days. Historically, even-year sessions are supposed to deal with a broad array of matters while odd-year assemblies focus on money matters and carry-over bills.
But over time, the distinctions have blurred.
Adding a few more days might temporarily ease the pain. But it wouldn't be long before Parkinson's Law kicked in and legislative work expanded to fill the available time.
The only genuine solutions are to limit, by persuasion or fiat, the number of bills considered and to streamline wherever possible the process by which they're reviewed.
Moss is among lawmakers who oppose a strict, per-member quota of bills. Inevitably, lawmakers would have to chose among constituents, and the more powerful groups would be the ones whose bills were introduced, he fears.
That might happen. But it seems equally possible that good ideas would win out over bad. Voters would surely take note of legislators who catered only to influential groups. Given the alternative of the status quo, forcing lawmakers to be more selective is an idea worth trying.
Second, a sizable dent in the volume of bills could be made by combining duplicate bills and limiting introduction of identical measures in both houses. Those steps would reduce maneuvering room on some bills. But skilled strategists would surely find ways to adapt.
Third, a variety of lesser steps could be taken, such as consolidating overlapping studies or cutting back on the introduction of bills after the session begins.
Before lawmakers extend their time in Richmond, they need to prove that they've made a good-faith effort to discipline themselves. So far, they haven't taken the hard steps to do so. They should, remembering that citizens such as Deanna Golding deserve better. MEMO: Ms. Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.