I started my list for legislative transparency. I'm sure I've forgotten many of the issues we groused about during the session, but here's what I have so far:
Wishlist for Legislative Transparency
Committee Schedules:
- There should only be one schedule for each committee, not three
different schedules that don't agree.
- Bills discussed in a committee should reflect what's on the
committee schedule, approximately in order, not taken in random order
or ignored entirely. (It's understood that sometimes bills will need
to be postponed because a legislator or key speaker isn't available.)
Zoom meetings:
- should show which bill is currently being discussed: a few
committees do this with a header at the top of the screen, but most don't,
and even the ones that do sometimes don't keep it up to date.
- should show which legislator is speaking, so the public can get some idea
what different legislators' positions are.
Website:
- Committees should have a page like the chambers do, showing which bill
is being discussed, and, more important what the vote was on each bill
and whether a bill was tabled, postponed or what.
- There should be a way to see if a bill has been tabled
- Quicker updates of bill status
Amendments:
It should be required that amendments be published on the website
before they can be discussed in a committee, preferably with a time
constraint, like a minimum of 2 hours before the committee meets.
Dummy Bills:
They continue to be a problem.
In 2026, some dummy bills got discussed without their titles or text
ever being changed, so there was no way for the public to know
what was going to be discussed.
Minutes:
Even inaccurate AI transcripts would be better than nothing, and are
very cheap to implement. Of course, accurate minutes would be better.
...Akkana
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