Legislation still can perish at the hands of few state lawmakers in the early morning, but it looks like it'll soon be on the record.
At the urging of Democrats and members of his own party, Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, said he has directed the clerk of the House of Delegates to start recording votes taken in House subcommittees.
"The intent is when a recorded vote is requested, as in a full committee, the clerks will take note of that and we will get that on the [Legislative Information System] as soon as practicable," said G. Paul Nardo, chief of staff to Howell.
Until recent years, subcommittee votes were not recorded, but subcommittees could not kill bills. The House, which is led by Republicans, changed the rules in 2006 to allow subcommittees to quash legislation.
Democrats failed in their attempt to change the rules in the 2007 and 2008 sessions. Last week, the conservative group Americans for Prosperity asked House leaders to record subcommittee votes for the sake of transparency.
Not recording votes makes it difficult to track lawmakers' action on bills. Members of full committees still can request a bill be brought up and addressed.
A couple of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposals in this year's session died in House subcommittees on unrecorded votes, including an effort to ban smoking in enclosed bars and restaurants and a proposal to create a bipartisan panel to draw legislative districts.
Kaine said yesterday that it's "a very good move" to record subcommittee votes.
"Everyone who runs to be in the legislature should be accountable for the votes they cast," he said, "and the practice of trying to hide votes in an unrecorded manner in subcommittee was really kind of against the very purpose of the institution, so I'm happy to hear that they're going to move back to recorded votes."
Some lawmakers see quashing bills in subcommittees as an important way to weed out ill-fated legislation, and Nardo noted that there are many more subcommittees than full committees. House Republicans discussed the change in caucus on Sunday night.
"Accountable and transparent government is where good government begins," said Ben Marchi, state director of Americans for Prosperity, "and it is encouraging that both Virginia voters and delegates are in agreement."
Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.
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