BOARD
House Bill 4386 as introduced
First Analysis (6-8-99)
Sponsor: Rep. Joe Rivet
Committee: House Oversight and
Operations (discharged)
THE APPARENT PROBLEM:
The Legislative Council Act specifies the membership of the committee that governs the House Fiscal Agency. Under the statute, the committee has six members: the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leader, the chair and minority vice-chair of the Appropriations Committee, and the chair and the minority vice-chair of the House Oversight and Ethics Committee. (The act provides for eight members on the governing committee when the House is operating under a joint leadership agreement; that is, when the legislature has an equal number of members from the two parties and has co-speakers and co-chairs of committees, etc.) For the 1999-2000 legislative session, the House leadership reorganized the House committee structure. The committee previously known as the "House Oversight and Ethics" Committee is now called the "House Oversight and Operations" Committee. (In previous sessions, the committee has also been called simply "House Oversight".) Traditionally, the chair and minority vice-chair of this committee have also been the legislators selected by their respective caucuses to be Majority and Minority Floor Leader. Legislation has been proposed to specifically name the Majority and Minority Floor Leaders to the HFA governing committee, replacing the currently designated committee chair and vice-chair.
THE CONTENT OF THE BILL:
House Bill 4386 would amend the Legislative Council Act to change the membership of the House Fiscal Agency governing committee so that the Majority Floor Leader and Minority Floor Leader would replace the chair and minority vice-chair of the House Oversight and Ethics Committee.
MCL 4.1601
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
According to the House Fiscal Agency, the bill has no fiscal implications. (6-3-99)
ARGUMENTS:
For:
The bill would simply designate as members of the HFA governing board the two House members elected by their caucuses as Majority and Minority Floor Leaders. These individuals have traditionally been the chair and minority vice-chair of the committee named in the statute (though that is not the case this legislative session). This would alleviate the need to amend the statute each time that new legislative leadership makes changes in the committee structure, renaming or reformulating committees, so that the intent of having each caucus' leadership on the HFA governing board remains in place.
Response:
Reportedly, amendments may be proposed to ensure that the majority of the committee will remain non-Appropriations Committee members.
POSITIONS:
There are no positions on the bill at this time.
Analyst: D. Martens