Delaware's Legislative Process
Advocate group
or individual drafts its bill
A bill is drafted, often by an advocate group.
The advocate group then makes a decision into which chamber of the General Assembly
a bill should be introduced. Advocate group lobbyists contact a legislator whom
they believe might be receptive to an issue and ask the legislator to review the
bill.
Bill sponsors sought
After such review, the legislator is asked
to be the prime sponsor of the bill. As a general rule, attempt to find sponsors
from the members of the committee that will consider your bill. For instance, have
education bills sponsored by the House and/or Senate Education Committee Chairpersons;
labor-oriented bills sponsored by the House and/or Senate Labor Committee Chairpersons;
and pension issues sponsored by the House and/or Senate Pension Committee Chairpersons.
Once a prime sponsor is secured, request other legislators to co-sponsors the bill.
Many advocate groups are careful that all of their bills are sponsored by members
of all four caucuses so that the bill has strong bi-partisan support.
Bill is introduced and assigned
to a committee
After a review by the House or Senate attorney,
the bill is introduced into the House or Senate where it is read in for the first
time, receives a number and is assigned by the Speaker of the House or the President
of the Senate (the Lieutenant Governor or the Senate Pro-Tempore) to a committee.
House bills are designated as HB; Senate bills as SB. Committee assignments are
generally made based on the nature of the bill, such as an education bill is usually
assigned to the Education Committee. However, politics can enter into the committee
assignments and it could be placed into any committee, including the friendly placement
of a bill into a committee chaired by the sponsor of the bill or the unfriendly
placement of a bill into a committee chaired by an opponent of the bill. If the
advocate group anticipates a problem with committee assignment prior to introduction
of a bill, the advocate group should contact House or Senate leadership to discuss
its possible committee assignment.
Committee considers bill at a hearing
If the bill is a House bill, the House rules
require that a hearing on the bill be conducted within two weeks of its introduction
by its assigned committee at the request of the sponsor. In some cases it is strategically
desirable to have the bill heard by the committee quickly and in some cases it is
desirable to build more support for a bill before it is heard. Advocate group lobbyists
shopuld work with the sponsor to determine the proper timing of the committee hearing.
If the bill is a Senate bill, the process
is similar, but no rule exists for the amount of time that a committee must conduct
a hearing on the bill at the request of the sponsor. Frequently, the chairperson
of a Senate committee will walk a bill from committee without conducting a hearing.
Walking means that the chairperson gets committee members to sign the bill out of
committee without the benefit of a hearing.
The committee chairperson has considerable
power in determining if a bill is released from committee, particularly in the Senate.
In some cases, the committee chairperson will refuse to sign a bill out of committee.
If a committee chairperson decides to hold a bill in committee, the chamber may
vote to release a bill from committee, but this action, however, is unlikely to
occur.
At the committee hearing, the advocate group
should testify to the merits of its bill. The committee will then decide what action
to take. The committee can table a bill for further discussion, act to release the
bill to the entire chamber, or to kill the bill by holding it in committee. If a
bill is released, each member of the committee has an opportunity to rate the bill
by signing out the bill as favorable, unfavorable or on its merits. The more favorables,
the better chance the bill has of passage when it reaches the entire chamber.
Once a bill is released from committee,
it can travel one of two different paths.
Bills costing money go to
the House Appropriations or Senate Finance Committee (See Budget Process)
If the bill costs more than $50,000 to implement,
the bill is assigned to the Appropriations Committee in the House or the Finance
Committee in the Senate. The committee process outlined above is again repeated,
but not until the bill has been funded in the state budget, which is not usually
adopted until the end of June. Advocate group lobbyists must work with the Joint
Finance Committee (comprised of both the House Appropriations Committee and the
Senate Finance Committee) to secure funding. (In some rare cases, the Joint Finance
Committee may include the bill draft in the epilogue of the budget, making passage
of the bill unnecessary). Once a bill is funded and released by either the House
Appropriations Committee or Senate Finance Committee, it follows the path outlined
below.
A less costly bill is placed
on the "Ready List"
If a bill, which does not have a fiscal note
in excess of $50,000, is released from committee, it is given its second reading
before the chamber and is placed on the ready list to await placement on the agenda
by the chamber's majority leadership. The advocate group and the bill's prime sponsor
will work with the majority leadership to have the bill placed on the agenda.
Bill is placed on agenda and considered
Once on the agenda, the bill is read in for
the third time and placed before the entire chamber where is debated. The bill could
be passed, defeated, laid on the table or remitted back to committee by action of
the chamber. If a bill is defeated, the bill is lost unless a majority of the members
of a chamber vote to restore the bill to the calendar. If restoration occurs, the
bill could then be tabled or reassigned back to committee. In the Senate, the roll
call of a defeated bill can be tabled by the sponsor until such time that he or
she can secure the requisite votes necessary for passage.
A bill passed by one chamber
goes to the other chamber and the process is repeated
If a bill is passed by one chamber, the bill
is then sent to the other chamber where the entire process begins again. If the
bill passes the second chamber in the exact form as it passed the first chamber,
then it is sent to the Governor. If a bill is amended by the second chamber, it
is sent back to the first chamber and the entire process begins again. If it passes
the first chamber in the same form it passed the second chamber, then it is sent
to the Governor.
Governor receives the bill
When the Governor receives the bill, he or
she can either sign it, allow it to become law without his or her signature, or
veto the bill. If the bill is vetoed, the bill is returned to the chamber of origin.
A veto can be overridden by a 3/5 vote of both chambers. Only one veto has been
overridden in the last ten years.
The Budget Process
Budget Office prepares Governor's
Budget
The state budget process begins in September
when the Budget Office requests that each department in state government submit
budget requests for the next year's budget. These requests are generally presented
to the State Budget Office at public hearings held in October and November.
Between November and January, the State Budget
Office develops the Governor's budget bill. According to the State Constitution,
the Governor must present a budget which is balanced at 98% of the state's projected
revenues. The Delaware Financial and Economic Advisory Council (DEFAC) is charged
with making such projections, which are made in September, December, March, April,
May and June.
Governor presents his/her
budget
The Governor presents his or her budget to
the General Assembly in an address usually delivered on the last legislative day
in January. The leadership of his or her party's caucuses usually introduce the
formal bill that same day.
Joint Finance Committee
considers Governor's Budget
The
Governor's budget is assigned to the Joint Finance Committee. The General Assembly
adjourns for six weeks during February and March during which time the Joint Finance
Committee conducts its own budget hearings for all departments. Following these
hearings, the Joint Finance Committee requests its staff, the Controller General's
Office, to analyze the budget requests prior to budget mark-up. These hearings are
open to the public and the JFC will accept public testimony after the department
presents its budget requests.
The Joint Finance Committee (JFC) usually
meets toward the end of May to begin marking-up the budget. Again, the JFC must
develop a budget which is balanced at 98% of the revenues projected by DEFAC. The
JFC usually uses the May DEFAC projections to begin marking up the budget, but waits
for the June projections until the budget is finalized.
The JFC typically meets behind closed doors
in "orientation" and makes its major decisions. When they open to the public, they
begin voting on the budget line by line, item by item. Usually salary is the first
item considered, and the education budget the last. The JFC takes no public testimony
during mark-up.
After the budget is marked-up, the JFC drafts
the epilogue to the budget. The epilogue contains an written explanation of how
individual lines in the budget are to be spent. The epilogue, for instance, contains
the school employee salary schedules. The epilogue is frequently used to detail
education programs which have not been adopted as a law through a bill. The epilogue
is also used with some frequency to alter the Delaware Code. Unfortunately, the
JFC does not provide the public with copies of epilogue drafts prior to adoption,
so no one knows what may be contained in the epilogue until the budget bill is introduced.
The budget bill is typically introduced and voted on during the last week in June,
just before the General Assembly adjourns.