True North

Back in November the Minnesota DFL won 85 seats, giving them a clear majority. A couple of days later, the House DFL leadership released their updated committee and sub committee list. King posted on it here and linked back to a HRCC spreadsheet that showed the committee set up.

Well today I get, in the inbox, a Session Update (I thought they adjourned Sine Dei last month?) relating information on House Committee testimony that they received today.

A cumbersome committee structure is a barrier to public participation and process transparency.

It’s a situation that concerns Geoff Barsch, president of the Minnesota Governmental Relations Council, who offered recommendations for change to the House Governmental Operations, Reform, Technology and Elections Committee. The committee is looking at ways to improve the legislative process.

Too many committees lead to overlap and bills not being fully vetted, Barsch said.

He said it is hard for an experienced lobbyist, like himself, to follow the process, but nearly impossible for the general public. “More and more bills are being sent from one committee to the next with work left to be done, and we keep hearing this phrase, ‘This bill has a lot of stops to make before it gets to the floor.’”

Now I don't know if this is new information to the House or not, but if it is new to them it is yet one more example of just how out of touch with the public the DFL leadership structure is. If this is not new to them, it shows voters the lengths that they (the DFL leadership) will go to in order to keep the involvement of the governed out of the business of governance. It shows how important it is to them to keep us like mushrooms....always in the dark.

I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that this is not "new" to them but when I do that it still does not paint the House leadership in a good light. Actually - neither option portrays the House DFL leadership well, which in and of itself is a condemnation on their leadership.

Cross posted at Ladies Logic where I am back in business and open for comments!