The Maine House and Senate have adopted new rules aimed at increasing transparency around so-called "concept draft" bills which have become increasingly common during recent legislative sessions.
Lawmakers often submit these draft bills as placeholders while they continue developing their proposals and work with legislative staff to develop the specific legal language. But sometimes that finished language isn't widely available until the day of the public hearing on the bill, raising transparency concerns because the general public or interest groups may not have time to offer meaningful feedback on the proposals.
Under the new rules adopted by lawmakers, the fleshed-out bill will have to be available for posting online at least two business days before a public hearing. Otherwise, the committee will automatically kill the bill.
Sen. Anne Carney, a Cape Elizabeth Democrat who co-chairs the Rules Committee that worked on the proposal, noted that concept drafts have been used for years.
"It didn't seem to make sense to immediately throw it out when we knew we could achieve the goal of transparency without ditching the whole concept of concept drafts," Carney said on the Senate floor.
The Senate's 22-12 vote to adopt the rules fell largely along party lines, with all Democrats supporting the package and most Republicans in opposition. One of those Republicans who voted against the change was Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford, who has led the charge to address transparency concerns over concept drafts.
Bennett said the Rules Committee, on which he serves, "failed to harness the considerable energy for reform to effect real change." Bennett had pushed to end the use of concept drafts altogether except for the budget bill and "model" legislation who content is available online.
"It is time that we put a stake in the ground on concept drafts and say that these are not necessary," Bennett said.
The full Senate rejected Bennett's separate proposal to eliminate concept drafts in most circumstances, however, in an 18-15 vote.
Following the Senate's lead, the House approved the full rule change package without a roll call vote.
