AUGUSTA, Maine — More than 400 bills are making their way through the legislative pipeline, including several controversial proposals dealing with the disposal of fetal tissue, firearms background checks and new restrictions on the power of the governor's office. But legislative leaders appear inclined to reject the overwhelming majority of the measures.
The two top leaders of the Legislature say the 10-member Legislative Council charged with making the final determination on which new bills make it into next year's legislative session will apply strict criteria when making their choices. And some choices may be easier to make than others.
Rep. Larry Lockman, a Republican from Amherst, thinks it's time to start randomly drug-testing lawmakers. House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe wants to require the governor to promptly fill vacant commission slots.
Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau from Winterport says bills trying to make a political statement won't make it.
"If there is something that is politically motivated that is not truly emergency nature it's highly unlikely it would get through," he says.
House Speaker Mark Eves, a Democrat from North Berwick, agrees. He says leaders have to limit new bills to true emergency matters because hundreds of bills, some that are very complicated, have been held over for consideration in January.
"They do truly need to be time sensitive or emergency in nature, and a lot of the bills we have seen so far, particularly the ones that have gotten more attention, whether it is around Planned Parenthood, those just aren't going anywhere," he says.
Because of the political divisions in the Maine Legislature, each party holds five seats on the Legislative Council, setting the stage for a number of deadlocked votes if considerations should happen to divide along party lines.
The Legislative Council will meet Oct. 22 to hear personally from the bills' sponsors, who briefly will explain why the legislation is needed. If the bill fails to attract a majority vote from the panel, lawmakers will get one more opportunity to appeal the decision next month before the Legislature returns in January.