Senator Onorato Continues Push For Greater Use Of Bipartisan, Senate And Assembly Conference Committees

State Senator George Onorato (D-Queens) recently joined with his Senate Minority colleagues in urging action on legislation he co-sponsors (S2293) that would establish a new Standing Committee on Conference to ensure that similar bills passed by the Senate and Assembly are routinely negotiated in an open, public forum.

"As it stands now, conference committees are occasionally created to hammer out compromises on similar, but not identical, legislation approved by both houses," said Senator Onorato, noting that one of the most recent conference committees came together earlier this year to reach an agreement on expanding New York State’s sex offender registry. "Given the successes that these bipartisan committees have had in recent years, they should be employed as a matter of course in government deliberations."

Although Senator Onorato and other members of the Senate Minority voted to bring the conference committee legislation to the Senate floor for consideration by the full membership, the motion was not supported by the full Senate. "I am very disappointed that this very important government reform measure has been placed on the back burner, at least for now," said Senator Onorato. "As the 2006 legislative session goes forward, I hope the full Senate will join together in making this and other needed changes to our government operations that will better serve the people of New York."

The legislation would establish a 10-member Standing Committee on Conference, with five members each appointed by the Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader. At least two members of the committee would be representatives of the Legislature’s minority conferences. Bills would be sent to the committee for consideration upon written request by the Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader; by the prime sponsors of the legislation in both houses, or by the committee chairpersons with jurisdiction over the similar bills. In addition, any member of the Legislature could request that the Committee on Conference consider a bill by writing to a new non-partisan counsel, to be appointed by the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission, who would examine the legislation and decide whether it should be referred to the Committee for action.

"Given that conference committees are already routinely utilized by the United States Congress and 45 of the 49 bicameral state legislatures in the nation, I think the time is now for New York State to join the party and take new steps to make our operations more open, democratic and accountable to the public," said Senator Onorato. "We shouldn’t forget that, just two years ago, our State government was labeled the most dysfunctional in the nation. While we’ve made some progress since then, we still have a very long way to go. By making conference committees both permanent and routine, we would be taking a giant step forwards."