Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

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  3. Beacon Hill, what do these committees do? (If you can’t explain all, I’ll take what I can get).

    I know that they get stipends, but are there political advantages to a chairmanship? If so, what?

    And why do some backbenchers seem to be on 50,000 committees?

    • The committees are the first clearing ground for all legislation. Every bill goes to a committee of primary jurisdiction for a hearing and a recommendation of ought to pass (OTP) or ought not to pass (ONTP). In practice, a few bills are moved by the Chair who thinks s/he understands what the Speaker/President wants and most linger in the committee for a slow death.

      House committee chairs almost never sit on other committees so the only way that the House can maintain its numerical dominance over the Senate is to have some members sit on four or five committees (that is part of the current Senate-House beef over the Joint Rules).

      Parliamentary rules require any bill that involves government revenue or expenditures go to Ways & Means, but in practice ALL interesting bills go there. The Committee is controlled tighter than a sword by a samurai. Members of the committee in return get a little input on minor expenditures.

      Bills in Third Reading is the place where members are punished. If you have a home rule petition that deals with something as small as the number of liquor licenses in your community, you get f-ed by the Chair if you are insufficiently obeisant. That was DeLeo’s job before he became Ways & Means Chair and then Speaker, and it is the former job of the previously mentioned Tom Golden. The Chair of Third Reading does not think, he just doles out the punishment.

      Few committees have a true study process. The great exception in the past decade was the House Committee on Health Care Finance under its chair Patricia Walrath during the universal health care debate (Romneycare). She had no charisma, no ego and a great staff including now Rep Christine Barber. They did really serious work and DiMasi was equally serious about learning the details. The end result was pretty good.

      Contrast that with DiMasi’s leadership on what is now known as the Green Communities Act. The Energy Committee chaired by Brian Dempsey was useless and DiMasi’s senior staff was equally bad. Adults outside the legislature in the field of energy and environment had to let DiMasi and Dempsey take the credit in order to get a good law enacted.

      Most committee chairs get an extra $7500 per year and control of committee staff. A few super committee chairs get $15,000 per year in which case the vice-chair gets $7500 extra. Some committees have the capacity to generate mega-contributions for the chair, especially those that deal with state regulated industries (utilities, banks, financial services). In the old days rank and file members of those committees could tap that till but the increasing centralization of power leaves the rank and file out of the money parade unless they find their own sub-stream of donors in that field.

      Campaign money can make an incumbent electorally invulnerable (historically Massachusetts has one of the highest incumbent re-election rates in the country). It also can subsidize a pretty lavish lifestyle, paying for auto leases, fancy restaurant meals and even vacations that masquerade as conferences. Most legislators do not have the backbone to step outside the comfort zone of their district or Cape Cod so they use legislative conference to travel in packs with lobbyists shepherding them.

      The road downhill for Charlie Flaherty started with a Globe Spotlight story of him and his boys on a tropical beach during a legislative conference, pictures and everything. Look at the campaign finance report of any of the high spending legislators like DeLeo, Rosenberg and Murray in the past few years to see how well they dine and travel on lobbyist dollars.

      Want more? Ask. Am I cynical enough for you?

      • Classy reality based commentary! Except for the exaggerated influence of money. Hubris compounded by minor character flaws and careless id behavior trumps money every time.

      • You can’t exactly look this stuff in a book.

        My state reps are 4th Floor Division chair and Chair of Labor and Workforce? What do they do?

        My freshman senator is Chair, Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development and Vice Chair, Joint Committee on Financial Services.

        Any info would be interesting and appreciated.

        • I believe Division Chairs are part of the whip operation. Divisions are by seating assignment in the House chamber which is physically divided into four sections.

          The committees review and mark up legislation in the areas suggested by their names. Chairs do pretty much what you would think someone with that title would do, though for joint committees the duties are shared with their counterparts from the other chamber. Here is the committee page of the General Court website. You can click through various links for specifics.

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