More partisanship in House Rules Committee

Utah House GOP leaders, saying an "experiment" with a more accommodating House Rules Committee has failed, are going back to a more controlling, partisan route to the handling of hundreds of proposed bills this general session.

While some may see the change instigated Monday as back-room baseball, others say it means a more partisan, controlled operation of the 75-member House. And through extension, even how Senate bills will also be handled the larger body.

"The Rules Committee was being used for politically partisan purposes" by Democrats, House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, said. "And I said that is coming to an end."

But the two Democratic members of Rules, Reps. Jackie Biskupski, D-Salt Lake, and Neal Hendrickson, D-West Valley — there are six Republicans on the committee, reflecting the makeup of the full House — both say they believed the old operation of Rules was working, and that now they don't even see what the purpose of Rules will be.

Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, changed the way Rules operated when he was named its chairman by Curtis several years ago. Saying he wanted a more open and participatory operation, he let each of the Rules members put on each meeting's agenda a certain number of bills, with that member suggesting which standing committee the bill would be heard in.

After debating and voting on those lists in an open meeting, that final list would go to the speaker, who would read in the bills and their committee assignments.

Now, said Urquhart, he alone will draw up the Rules agenda. And the bills he picks won't be assigned to a standing committee. When Curtis reads in that list — which may still be changed by a majority vote in Rules — the speaker will assign the standing committees. Urquhart said Curtis will likely take his suggestions on which committee will hear which bill.

It is critical to a bill's success that it be sent out of Rules for a hearing. If Rules holds a bill, it is dead unless an extraordinary motion is made from the House floor to lift it — a move that is rarely done. All bills must have a public hearing unless both the House and Senate vote to suspend that basic rule, which is also a rare event.

"I'm against the change," said Hendrickson, a conservative Democrat who gets along well with GOP leadership. Not having a say in where the bills will be heard "takes away one of the main tasks of Rules, sifting of bills," he said. "We have no input in that now."