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The text — and intent — of bills in the Maine Legislature shouldn’t be hidden from the public. Yet, lawmakers have increasingly introduced bills that contain little more than a title. In addition, bills are too often substantially amended and the language of those changes is only belatedly made available to the public. Legislative committee meetings are often long delayed, leaving members of the public waiting to share testimony or hear committee deliberations. It can be confusing to know how to submit testimony on proposed legislation as different committees may have different processes.
These and other rules and practices of the Maine Legislature can be a barrier to transparency and public involvement in state government. They likely also contribute to growing distrust of government.
Earlier this year, the Legislature’s Rules Committee offered a long list of potential, if somewhat vague, changes to legislative practices to increase transparency and public participation. We applaud legislative leaders for endorsing this work and the need for improvements, and encourage them to act aggressively to rein in practices that have, sometimes unintentionally, eroded transparency and public confidence in government.
As BDN politics reporter Billy Kobin wrote this week, several changes are currently being considered by lawmakers, including limiting concept drafts, stronger public notice requirements and changing the legislative schedule to give legislative committees more time to consider bills early in the session.
It appears that there is broad agreement to limit the use of what are called concept drafts, which is a good start on this reform work.
Last year, more than a quarter of bills introduced in the Maine Legislature were placeholders or concept drafts. This was five times more than the totals in the past five legislative sessions, according to an analysis by Maine Public.
Concept drafts are essentially bills introduced with only a title. We understand that sometimes a lawmaker wants or even needs to introduce a bill without having the expertise or time to draft the necessary language. Or legislative staffers don’t have the time to complete this work before the deadline for submitting bills.
However, concept drafts have increasingly been used for legislation on large and sometimes controversial and contentious issues, which can leave advocates and others feeling like this process was used to hide the actual intent of the proposed legislation, even if that was not the case.
Take for example, a controversial shield law that was considered by lawmakers earlier this year. When it was originally introduced in January 2023, the bill was simply called An Act Regarding Health Care in the State and contained no text. The actual text of the bill was released less than a week before its public hearing in March. The proposal, which Democratic Gov. Janet Mills later signed into law in April, protects Maine medical providers who treat transgender and abortion patients who come from out of state from litigation or prosecution in other states.
Although we support protecting access to these types of health care, delaying the content of the bill fueled valid criticism of the perceived secrecy over the text of the bill, which was strongly opposed by many conservative and religious organizations.
In another area, we, other journalists and likely others have long been frustrated with the difficulty of obtaining the language of amendments to bills, which sometimes entirely replace the content of bills that have already been subject to public hearings and debate. To improve this, the Rules Committee suggested that the text of bill amendments be posted online and subject to public notice requirements. We wholeheartedly support such a change, realizing that sometimes changes need to be made at the last minute. But when the language of a bill is entirely replaced or substantially changed, the public needs an opportunity to consider and comment on those changes.
Maine lawmakers should begin their upcoming session with these and other rule changes that increase the transparency and accessibility of the legislative process.