GOOD NEWS: ETHICS BILL MOVES FORWARD

I’m proud to announce that HB109, the governor’s bill on ethics passed successfully out of the House State Affairs Committee today, Saturday.

My top priority as Chair of the House State Affairs Committee has been revised ethics legislation. I sponsored HB10, with five Republican and five Democrat prime co-sponsors. Speaker John Harris brought forth another good ethics bill, HB20. Several other legislators had other good bills addressing ethics issues. Then Governor Sarah Palin sponsored HB109 on ethics.

As Committee Chair, I decided to roll all the various proposed ethics bills into one omnibus ethics proposal using HB109, the governor’s bill, as the vehicle. That removed at least some of the “politics” from the legislation, because individual legislator’s names would not appear as sponsors. Also, by combining the many bills into one omnibus bill, there is less chance of an unintended consequence of one bill not meshing with another bill. It should be pointed out that, when legislators craft ethics legislation, we are freely legislating ourselves. Apparently our constituents like what they see happening, because we only had one person offer public testimony - and that testimony was positive.

The Sub-Committee I appointed, and then the full Committee, successfully worked though some 34 amendments, plus amendments to amendments to amendments. It was difficult but rewarding, and resulted in a good product. The Judiciary Committee (of which I am a member) will start with a fresh “Committee Substitute” HB109 ,which can then be tweaked even further by that committee. After the hearin g in Judiciary C ommittee, HB109 will go to the House floor for a vote and, if it passes, go through a similar process in the Senate.

Hats off and thanks to the hard-working staff, both majority and minority, of every member of the House State Affairs Committee! Personal especial thanks for helping keep me on track during the hearing on this bill goes to my own Chief of Staff and Committee Aide Nancy Manly, and Session Staffer Mike Sica – both of whom stayed late many evenings to have the paperwork ready for me for the committee hearings. Nancy and Mike’s photo above shows them in my office in behind-the-scenes work on this bill; both are “workaholics” in the best sense of the term.