Bills Speeded Onto Lynch's Desk

Talk about speeding up the legislative process!

More than a dozen bills, including the photo ID for voting bill, which passed the House and Senate Wednesday are already on their way to Governor John Lynch's desk.  In fact, they should be there by the time I finsh writing this, and you read it.

That means that Lynch will have only until Wednesday to sign or veto the bills (or they will become law without his signature).  This is inside baseball stuff, but it might be significant.  The Governor has five days to deal with a bill--Sundays and holidays don't count, but Saturdays do.

Some may recall that last year, Democrats who controlled the House and Senate were in no hurry to get the gay marriage bill on to the desk of John Lynch who had not made up his mind about signing it (Oh sure, in retrospect, he likes to take credit for gay marriage, but he was a bitter opponent until the very end of the process; the passed bill sat literally for weeks on the desk of Senate President Sylvia Larsen while Lynch stuck his finger in the air to make up his mind).

In a complicated process, bills can be held up for days enroute to the Governor's office.  They must go to the Secretary of State and the Speaker and Senate President's office to be signed then have to be enrolled and go back to the Secretary of State, Speaker, and Senate President (someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but you get the gist--it's a cumbersome process).

Less than an hour ago, I was upstairs in the State House.  Two Reps are needed to convene a session to accept enrolled bills; I was enlisted for the purpose, and lo and behold, less than 20 minutes later, I was in the Secretary of State's office when Rep. Al Baldassaro walked the bills in.  They'd already been signed in the Speaker's and Senate President's office.  Secretary of State Bill Gardner signed them (and applied the seal) while I was there, and they are off to the Governor.

It's amazing how fast (or how slowly) this process can work, depending on how fast (or how slowly) those in leadership want it to work.

Unless I'm wrong, the clock is ticking and Lynch will have only until Wednesday to veto any of these bills, perhaps signficant on the photo ID bill because while it passed the Hose by a veto proof margin, it was one vote short in the Senate...but then as I reported here yesterday, Rasmussen has a new poll showing that Americans favor photo ID for voting by more than a three to one margin. 

No wonder the  Speaker and Senate President acted with alacrity to get this bill to the Governor.  What's the motto?  Strike while the iron is hot?

This iron is hot, and Republican leadership is clearly in the striking mode today.

Of course as we've learned with the right to work bill, it's the Speaker and Senate President who decide when to bring up a vote on any vetoed bill.  It could be next week...or next month...or some time this fall.   That's nothing new; it's always been the procedure (although Democrats don't like to admit it, it was the procedure when Larsen and Norelli were in power--how quickly they forget the game they played with bills, and it's the procedure now that Republicans are in power).