Chafee, Fox and Raimondo on Nov. 18

By Ted Nesi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – House Speaker Gordon Fox wants to curtail one of the General Assembly’s most cherished traditions: the mad dash to pass a backlog of legislation during the closing days of the session.

“I strongly believe that if bills, particularly non-budgetary items, are introduced earlier in the session it helps the House of Representatives to vet and consider the information in an orderly manner,” Fox wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to Governor Chafee obtained by WPRI.com. “It also prevents or lessens the chances of bills not being given the due consideration that they deserve before the General Assembly session ends.”

In addition to the governor, Fox reached out this month to other leaders including Treasurer Gina Raimondo, rank-and-file House members, state agency chiefs and the judiciary in an effort to get a head start on the 2012 legislative session. State lawmakers return to Smith Hill on Tuesday.

This is the first time Fox, a Providence Democrat who succeeded former Speaker Bill Murphy in February 2010, and his staff have tried to get an early handle on the legislative priorities of various officials and departments, spokesman Larry Berman told WPRI.com.

‘Much work remains to be done’

Fox “realizes that the Assembly has been criticized in the past for considering a large number of bills late in the session,” Berman said. “This will provide the appropriate time for hearings to be held and will ensure a smoother legislative flow throughout the session.”

The General Assembly frequently suspended its own rules and violated the state’s open meetings law during the last two weeks of its half-year sessions over the past decade, according to a Common Cause Rhode Island study [pdf] released in June that said “much work remains to be done to ensure the work of our legislature is completely transparent.”

Fox received “a great response” to his outreach this month, Berman said. The speaker and John Flynn, his legal counsel, got a total of 20 bill proposals from Attorney General Peter Kilmartin, the Board of Elections, the Resource Recovery Corporation, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras’ administration and the public defender’s office. Their legislation is now being drafted by legislative aides.

Fox also met “informally” with Chafee and Raimondo to discuss their priorities, “and they will be meeting more formally in the near future,” Berman said. Several House lawmakers sat down separately with Flynn to share their ideas after Fox sent them a letter urging them to “pre-file” their legislation ahead of Tuesday’s start to the session, he said.

“Once bills are introduced and referred to committees in January, we can begin the committee hearing process earlier in the session than has been past practice,” Fox wrote in his letter to Chafee, adding: “I look forward to working with you to make 2012 a successful year for all Rhode Islanders.”

‘Good direction’ by speaker

Fox consolidated his power in the House this year and established close relationships with Chafee and Raimondo, playing a pivotal role in winning passage of the landmark pension overhaul last month. Time magazine recently called the speaker “perhaps the most powerful figure in state government” in Rhode Island.

The effort to streamline and spread out the process of considering legislation is part of a broader effort by the speaker to improve how the House operates, said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island.

“He’s really shown in his almost two years that he’s trying to lead the process at the Assembly in a direction that’s more transparent, that has more public input,” Marion said, citing the House’s decision to put votes online in real time and its vote to make the pension process more transparent. “All of these things are headed in one direction, and that’s a good direction.”

Rhode Island’s legislature lags behind other states in limiting how late in a session bills can be introduced and how quickly they can move through the two chambers. More than three-fourths of legislative bodies in the United States enforce such deadlines when they’re meeting, according to the National Council on State Legislatures [pdf].

“That’s common practice in other states,” Marion said. “Here, all of the deadlines, including for introducing bills, are completely fungible. And that’s not good government.”

Ted Nesi ( tnesi@wpri.com ) covers politics and the economy for WPRI.com and writes the Nesi’s Notes blog. Follow him on Twitter: @tednesi

(photo: Ted Nesi/WPRI)