Under the flexible session the pocket veto
is less likely to be used, as has been shown
in those states that have the flexible session,
if used at all.
Legislatively determined sessions also
will give the General Assembly more time
to consider the governor's budget. Virtually
every member of the present General As-
sembly who testified before the Committee
on the Legislative Branch stated that in-
sufficient time was available under the con-
stitutionally limited session to adequately
deal with the budget. With the governor's
budget, now above $I billion, growing
larger every year, there is no question that
the legislature should be permitted to set
its own schedule as time requires so that
full consideration might be given to it.
It should also be kept in mind that, his-
torically speaking, legislative time limits
were first instituted—and I shall come back
to that in a few minutes—because it was
hoped this would keep the legislature from
doing too much. Certainly this is a pre-
posterous device to remedy political ills. No
business organization would be so foolish
as to try to improve an inefficient direc-
torate by compelling directors' meetings to
adjourn at the end of two hours, or re-
stricting such meetings to 90 days; or if
you would argue the cure for a faulty
court system would be to have the judges
sit from New Year's Day to Easter. The
same logic is applied to the legislature,
however, under the present rule.
The time has come to trust the legisla-
ture to know how long it should meet and
under what rules and regulations.
Legislatively determined sessions are
advocated by the Model State Constitution
of the National Municipal League, which
says legislative problems should be faced
when they arise. Committees should have
time to plan work, schedule necessary hear-
ings, and have time for research. This is
also true of the Committee on the Legisla-
tive Branch of the Maryland Constitutional
Convention Commission, which came out
strongly for a legislatively determined ses-
sion. It is also true of the Committee on
Economic Development, their Task Force
on Modernizing State Government. They
recommended that for States the size of
Maryland it is important that there be a
flexible session—and I might add these
were not political scientists alone, as is
true of those on the Model State Constitu-
tion Committee of the National Municipal
League, but were businessmen as well.
Maryland's two United States Senators,
Senator Brewster and Senator Tydings, |
both of whom were former members of the
General Assembly, argued for legislatively
determined sessions when testifying before
the Committee on the Legislative Branch.
Every last member of the legislature who
testified before our Committee said that
under the present time limit there was not
enough time to complete the required job.
When we asked them how much time
they needed, they hesitated in answering.
"I don't know for sure," many said. Some
of them said ten days, others said fifteen,
yet others said twenty.
The point is there was no consensus
which would permit a fixed number of days.
It is interesting to note that all the legis-
lators who testified indicated that they
worked on legislative matters all year
round. Many of them said they worked 50
or more percent of their time after the
session is over. Some said, "I work longer
hours on legislative matters after the ses-
sion that during the session, for then I am
home where citizens can reach me."
Nearly all of the legislators, this is
highly important, wanted the legislative
committees to work all year round. If these
committees do work all year around there
will certainly be many occasions when the
questions at hand require intercommittee
relationships to solve the problems before
the individual committees can go on with
their own tasks.
Let me give you illustrations of this. We
know here at this Convention that on many
occasions we have had intercommittee meet-
ings which have kept us from having an
impasse, and had we not had these inter-
committee meetings, we would not have
been able to develop along the line which
we did.
As a matter of fact, only when commit-
tees are meeting with some formality can
we depend on scheduling these joint ses-
sions. The legislatively determined session
encourages such joint sessions.
It does not require that the plenary ses-
sion take place on all occasions. There are
some who said, "does this mean you have
the General Sessions always?" The answer
is no. Those 17 states that use it do not
always meet in general sessions or plenary
sessions.
In this connection it is important to note
that the state is now planning greater use
of administrative staffs, analysts, and re-
searchers. I say why employ such a full
time staff of analysts and researchers un- |
