Indiana House Gets “Right to Work”
When the Indiana House of Representatives convened on time Wednesday afternoon I made the crucial mistake of getting my hopes up. I thought to myself that the partisan wrangling would be over and these guys whom I have covered for the past six years will have their act together; not so much. What should have been a half-hour session turned into two hours of my life that I will never get back.
It took 20 minutes into the session for House Democrats to raise Rule 115, which requires bills to be read by number, title, author and committee reference when introduced on first reading. A member can object to a bill being read but if he or she doesn’t get a majority in favor of their objection, the bill goes to committee. Democrats rarely used the rule when they were in the majority.
What this was really all about were two bills regarding “right to work” which House Democrats wanted draw attention to. Democrats are not big fans of “right to work” and even the Governor has said he’d like to focus on other priorities. They argued that the “right to work” bills were bad for Indiana and wanted to stop them before they got out of the gate. Republicans argued the bills should get a fair hearing and Democrats were being obstructionist and playing partisan politics.
I would find the House Democrats argument more credible if they had followed the rule when they had the majority. However the one thing their move did illustrate is that when you’re in the minority, you better know the rules because at times, apart from walking out, that’s all you’ve got. So if I were the majority, I’d brush on my rule reading real fast and real quick!
