RESOURCES:
Understanding state government: An instructional series
TRANSCRIPTION:
Kevin Meerschaert: This is Kevin Meerschaert, 89 one WEMU news. Government can be proactive, reactive, tedious, frustrating, intimidating, confusing and several of those all at once. You might remember "Schoolhouse Rock" and know the basics of how a bill becomes a law. But there is a lot to know how things operate in Lansing. Reporter Colin Jackson has produced a series of stories that digs into the workings of the state Capitol. It's called "Understanding the Legislative Process." And he joins us now. What inspired you to produce this series?
Colin Jackson: One of the biggest things and just conversations that I was having was realizing the legislative process is kind of opaque. The state has a lot of these tools, like its legislative website, where if you know what you're looking at, you can find a lot of information. But it's really hard unless you're, like, a lobbyist or a reporter or a lawmaker to even know what you're looking at. And the same goes for even watching the House for a session stream. So, my first week on the job took me a long time to understand fully what I was seeing when you go through some of these agenda items.
Kevin Meerschaert: You said you follow the state Senate. You follow the House sessions. You have stories on both of those. What differences do you see in the two bodies?
Colin Jackson: For one, the House is just a lot more people, right? There's 110 members of the Michigan House versus 38 members of the Michigan Senate. So, the chamber size is different. The House is a lot more relaxed. Typically, people's first entrance into the Legislature is through the House. In the Senate, it's a little more serious. Attendance lasts a minute. There's a shot clock on votes. So, in the House, if they're voting on a bill, it'll stay open for 40 minutes to an hour sometimes, versus in the Senate, there's a very tight window of how long you have to vote on something. And if you don't vote within that time, too bad!
Kevin Meerschaert: You talk about how to read a bill, particularly the jargon use of the Capitol. What do people need to know to follow along?
Colin Jackson: One of the first things I think that confused me a little bit was the idea of first reading of bills, then the second reading of bills. And because in Michigan, all bills need to be read three times in the Legislature before they can go to a final vote. But, a lot of times, that just means being read by its title. In the Senate, you'll see the first reading in bill. That's when it gets introduced. Then, they'll read it a second time just immediately after. And then, that's when they'll assign it to committee. After it comes out of committee, typically, there's this stuff called jumble orders, which is, for lack of a better way of saying it, is the Senate acts as a giant committee, and they have two chances to debate and change the bills and whatnot. But there's a lot of jargon that comes along with that part. And then, after a bill goes through general orders, that's when it goes to the third reading of bills. And then you wonder, "Okay, what does third reading mean?" It's a final vote. This one is taking the vote to account whether or not to push it in and out of the chamber. If you don't know what you're looking at, like I said, it can kind of be confusing.
Kevin Meerschaert: As one has spent a lot of time in state capitols, one thing that's required is a lot of patience.
Colin Jackson: Oh, absolutely! I mean, there's days when you wake up, you get there right at, say, the Senate session that starts right at 10 a.m., and there's only 3 or 4 things on the agenda. But those 3 or 4 things might be big things and might be still sometimes lawmakers behind the scenes need to work out deals. And if they need to work on a new deal, other than the form of the bill that's currently in the chamber, that means there needs to be time to write up the new draft of the latest version of the bill. And that means there needs to be time for the legal team and legal staff to read through those drafts to make sure everything's right and make sure the dollar numbers are correct. And then from there, there's times to get that from that process to just in the system itself and print it and everything else. And sometimes, that can take like six, seven, eight hours, you know? The next thing you know, you're looking at a 12-hour day, and everyone's kind of standing around. Lawmakers will pass by. You ask them, "Hey, what are you waiting on?" You don't necessarily know all the time. It's just kind of the flow of how democracy works in Michigan.
Kevin Meerschaert: Okay. Colin Jackson, thank you much for joining us!
Colin Jackson: Thanks for having me!
Kevin Meerschaert: We have been joined by Capitol reporter Colin Jackson about the series, "Understanding the Legislative Process." You can check out the series on our website, wemu.org. I'm Kevin Meerschaert.
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