Utah Demos hard-pressed to pass bills
They passed just 19 percent of the bills they introduced.
Senate Democrats passed 56 percent; House Republicans, 57 percent; and Senate Republicans, 62 percent.
Things were so bad for the lowly, far-outnumbered House Democrats that 11 of 20 of them — more than half — passed no bills at all.
House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, said he was "very, very disappointed and really upset" about the number of House Democrats' bills not even considered by the Senate the final three days of the session. It is in these final days that many of the bills are up for final passage in the opposing chamber.
Becker laid the Democrats' bill-passing problems at the feet of House GOP leaders, who prioritized for the Senate Rules Committee which House bills will be heard by the whole Senate in the final three days.
"We let our concerns be known" to House GOP leaders and Democratic senators on the Senate Rules Committee, said Becker. "But nothing changed. We had a horrible time getting our bills out of Senate Rules (for a vote), just a horrible time."
House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said he was a bit mystified by the House Democrats' complaints.
"In one case, I asked for a prioritized list from the (House) Democratic leaders" on their bills, said Clark. "And I didn't get their list before I had to send my list (of House GOP bills) up to the Senate (Rules) for sifting."
In other cases, Clark said, he put on the House prioritized list two or three Democratic bills out of 10 or 12 going up for Senate consideration.
But Becker said his own internal analysis of what was happening decries those numbers.
In an early sifting list of 60 bills that came out of the Senate Rules Committee, only two were sponsored by House Democrats, Becker said. Another sifting list of 30 bills that went to the Senate board for votes had only one Democratic bill.
When one of Becker's own bills was listed as coming out of Senate Rules for a vote, Becker said he asked that his own bill be held — and thus killed. "I was embarrassed. We had more important Democratic (House) bills to get out for a vote" in the Senate.
At one point, a number of the House Democrats were so upset they decided to go public over the treatment by holding a demonstration on the House chamber floor, but were talked out of it by their party colleagues, one House Democrat told the newspaper.
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