Illinois House Agriculture Committee Taking On Guns, Women's Health

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 1, 2011 4:00PM

Theoretically, when a bill gets sent to a legislative committee, it's so that it can be properly vetted before it heads to the House floor for a vote. Theoretically, legislation is sent to committees based on subject matter, so that a bill that effected women's health would be looked at by the public health committee. This part of the legislative process would theoretically allow the analysis of laws before they come to a full vote in the House. So why then, is the House Agriculture Committee holding hearings on firearms and women's health issues, among other things?

The Better Government Association reports that seven bills were sent to the Agriculture Committee completely unrelated to farming. The BGA looked into exactly why bills involving extremely controversial issues such as conceal and carry permits, abortion and gambling were sent to the Agriculture Committee:

When we called Brendan Phelps, a Democrat from downstate Harrisburg to ask why his gun and women’s health bills ended up in the Agriculture committee, he said “these issues are ‘wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve’ issues. You want to put it to a committee where it’s going to get [voted] out so you can get it to the floor.”

In other words, lawmakers whose expertise supposedly lies somewhere else will end up pushing something to a vote, simply because they may be either unaware or uninterested in the details of the legislation. The process is completely legal and does not violate any House rules. But, as the BGA points out - it is “not a good government approach to passing laws. We're inclined to agree.