KEY: stricken = old language to be removed
     underscored = new language to be added

H.C.R. No. 3, the second engrossment: 82nd Legislative Session (2001-2002) Posted on May 2, 2001

  1.1                    A House concurrent resolution 
  1.2             relating to adopting Permanent Joint Rules of the 
  1.3             Senate and House of Representatives. 
  1.4      
  1.5      BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the 
  1.6   State of Minnesota, the Senate concurring that:  
  1.7      (1) The DFL majority leader and Republican minority leader 
  1.8   of the senate and speaker and DFL minority leader of the house 
  1.9   of representatives shall each appoint one-fourth of the members 
  1.10  of a bicameral task force to study and report to the House of 
  1.11  Representatives and the Senate by January 1, 2002, recommending 
  1.12  improvements in legislative rules for the purposes of: 
  1.13     (a) enhancing the openness and accessibility of the 
  1.14  legislative process to citizens, 
  1.15     (b) relieving the end-of-session crush of legislative 
  1.16  business, 
  1.17     (c) controlling excessive work hours and late-night 
  1.18  committee and floor meetings toward the end of session, 
  1.19     (d) making more effective and efficient use of limited 
  1.20  session time and the time of legislators and staff, executive 
  1.21  branch officials and staff, and other participants in the 
  1.22  legislative process, 
  1.23     (e) improving communication and cooperation between the two 
  1.24  houses on legislation, 
  2.1      (f) making the decision-making process more open, 
  2.2   deliberative, and reflective, particularly in the closing weeks 
  2.3   of session, and 
  2.4      (g) enhancing the decision-making authority of individual 
  2.5   legislators by reducing the current reliance on decision-making 
  2.6   through large omnibus fiscal bills covering multiple subjects 
  2.7   within a subject area negotiated in end-of-session conference 
  2.8   committees. 
  2.9      (2) The task force shall report on at least the following 
  2.10  proposals for advancing these goals: 
  2.11     (a) eliminate all but emergency legislative meetings after 
  2.12  10:00 p.m. and forbid meetings after 12:00 midnight, 
  2.13     (b) provide better information to legislators on 
  2.14  legislation repealing administrative rules, 
  2.15     (c) split up omnibus fiscal bills into smaller bills, 
  2.16     (d) obtain earlier, detailed bicameral agreement on taxes 
  2.17  and revenues, so as to provide a more uniform context for 
  2.18  spending decisions in both houses, 
  2.19     (e) authorize the production of bicameral legislative 
  2.20  fiscal notes on disputed matters, 
  2.21     (f) use joint committees in the legislative process and 
  2.22  better coordinate session and committee meeting times so as to 
  2.23  enhance the opportunity for joint committee meetings, 
  2.24     (g) reduce the use of conference committees by not 
  2.25  requiring the house of origin to request a conference committee 
  2.26  upon the first sign of disagreement between the houses, 
  2.27     (h) restrict the authority of conference committees to 
  2.28  include extraneous matter and to reach agreements not authorized 
  2.29  or consented to by the members of the two houses, 
  2.30     (i) establish and enforce earlier deadlines for conference 
  2.31  committees and forbid conference committees to report in the 
  2.32  closing days of session, 
  2.33     (j) require that every conference committee report be 
  2.34  available to members at least 24 hours before action on the 
  2.35  report, and 
  2.36     (k) limit the number of conference committee reports on 
  3.1   major bills that may be considered in one day. 
  3.2      (3) The task force shall recommend a procedure whereby a 
  3.3   joint convention of the senate and house of representatives must 
  3.4   meet to elect regents by a date certain prior to adjournment.