Doing the people's work in secret

Editorial, Bristol Herald Courier

Still keepiing secrets in the Virginia House

The practice of killing bills in subcommittees without recorded votes continues in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Blame the House Republicans. They voted the party line Friday, opting to keep this legislation-devouring black hole in place. What a shame.

Every House Democrat and one independent voted in favor of recording subcommittee votes. Not a single Republican joined them.

The Republicans donned two rather skimpy fig leaves to justify their vote: legislative efficiency and retribution for Democratic misbehavior in the past. Neither argument is particularly compelling.

It is true that the subcommittee system helps the part-time lawmakers deal with the crush of bills introduced each year. Some of these potential laws indeed involve trivial matters that can be properly disposed of in a subcommittee. However, there still should be a recorded vote.

Republican supporters of the kill-it-in-secret provision argue that to record a vote would be a burden. Preposterous. It takes a few minutes, at most, to call roll and record how each subcommittee member voted.

The second argument advanced Friday was a cynical take on the Golden Rule. You remember it: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Except for House Republicans, the mantra went something like this: "Do unto the Democrats as their predecessors did unto you in years past."

This was the pervasive logic of Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem. Griffith argued that Republicans were within their rights to keep subcommittee votes secret since Democrats used to routinely kill bills without recorded votes when they were in the majority.

"We’re being more open in government than ever before," Griffith said.

Griffith is correct in one respect. Democrats were in the wrong when they used so-called "pocket vetos" to kill Republican legislation. This tactic refers to the practice of holding legislation in a committee chairman’s "pocket" and preventing it from receiving an up-or-down vote.

But the Democrats are no longer in control of the General Assembly. The days of "pocket vetos" are over. No one wants to return to that era.

However, a "more open" government isn’t enough. Virginians deserve an open, transparent and accountable government. Continuing to allow subcommittees to kill bills without a recorded vote violates this spirit.

It also casts doubt on the Republicans’ motivation. Accountability to the voters is the only logical reason for Republicans to fear putting their votes on the record.

During the fractious 2006 session, a record number of bills were killed in subcommittees. They weren’t all trivial matters. Subcommittees killed measures to ban smoking in public, use cameras to catch red light runners and to allow local option taxes in Northern Virginia. These are the sorts of topics that generate broad public interest; their disposition should be a matter of public record.

Shame on the House Republicans for voting to continue doing the people’s work in secret.