Wednesday, December 01, 2004
If you only knew how laws were made... Today was the last day to file or re-file legislation in the state of Massachusetts for the 2004-2005 legislative session. So this is how it works: Legislators start actually coming into the office a week before the December 1st, 5 p.m. filing deadline . This gives them ample opportunity to meet with lobbyist X, Y, and slimeball-Z to hammer out whatever X,Y, or sleazy-Z wants the Rep to file. Invariably these bills all seem to benefit the telecommunications industry, the real estate conglomerates, or some other big business-big hitters. Next comes the scramble to come up with some legislation that has a fuzzy-nice social veneer to it i.e. health care, environment, education, etc. The bottom line is that on average a legislator files upwards to thirty pieces of legislation each year. So we are talking approximately 6,000 bills to be considered by both the House and Senate over the course of the 2004-2005 legislative session. Wow.... Way to keep your day job. Particularly when you look at some of the bills that get filed (lame dud specifics to follow). Unfortunately, the last hours leading up to the filing deadline are literally spent trying to one-up the other legislator by trying to file more bills than the other guy. As opposed to actually filing bills that are sound and make sense... i.e. quantity not quality.
When you think of the hoops a bill has to go through before it actually gets signed into law by the Governor, well then it really makes your head spin. Case in point: the bill our office just got signed into law has prompted numerous calls from law enforcement agencies tearing out their hair as to how to go about enforcing said law. Now it took four years for the bill to get to the Governor's desk. During this time never once was a police officer or agency consulted in order to get his/her/their hands-on, street-wise expertise. Need I say more.
When you think of the hoops a bill has to go through before it actually gets signed into law by the Governor, well then it really makes your head spin. Case in point: the bill our office just got signed into law has prompted numerous calls from law enforcement agencies tearing out their hair as to how to go about enforcing said law. Now it took four years for the bill to get to the Governor's desk. During this time never once was a police officer or agency consulted in order to get his/her/their hands-on, street-wise expertise. Need I say more.
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