By Jason Fossum
MSCSA Director of Government Relations

Now that the 2010 Minnesota state legislative session is under way and moving rapidly, many issues that are important to students will be considered and moved through the process. Having a basic understanding of how issues are dealt with at the Capitol becomes crucial for anyone who wants to follow an issue that they care about.

Traditional breakdowns of the legislative process do a nice job of simplifying an often complicated and detailed process. However, looking at the process from a higher level will not allow someone to fully understand the ins and outs of following legislation.

The first step involves elected officials presenting ideas that are then drafted into legislation or into “bill” form. These bills are then introduced in the House or Senate, or in many cases both chambers for possible consideration. Once a bill is created and drafted, it is given a bill number that allows for easy tracking. Minnesotans are fortunate that our legislative bodies have great websites that make tracking legislation very simple (see the end of this story for links).

Now that a bill has been given its number it will be referred to the committee that has jurisdiction over the subject matter of the bill. For example, legislation pertaining to online college courses would be referred to the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee in the Minnesota House.

At this point in the process, a member of the legislature must convince the chairperson of the committee to give the bill a hearing. Some committee chairs will hear any bill; some are much more selective on what is heard. If the bill you are interested in is scheduled for a hearing, this is the first chance that the public will have to give input on the issue. These committee hearings are open to the public and are held to get input on ideas.

Once a hearing is held and assuming a bill is supported by the committee, it can move forward through the remainder of the process. That could include hearings in other committees or the bill could move right to the house or senate “floors” for debate by the whole membership of that chamber.

If the bill you care about is supported by both the house and senate and the two versions are identical in every way, the legislation would then be sent to the Governor for action. However, if the bills are not the same, a conference committee will be formed to iron out the differences between the two bills. These committees typically consist of five house and senate members each. Once the conference committee has finished its work, the bill will then be re-passed by the House and Senate and sent to the Governor. In most cases, the Governor will do one of two things to a bill. He or she will either sign the bill into law (the final step if that occurs) or he may issue a veto. If the Governor vetoes legislation, the bill is sent back to the legislature. At that point, the house and senate may try and work out changes with the Governor, or they may attempt to override the veto. A veto override requires a very high vote threshold, but if successful, the bill would become law over the objection of the Governor.

In general, the legislative process can be summarized by thinking about two identical ideas, passing both the house and senate and being signed by the Governor. However, in practice, the process is much more complicated and often very time consuming. There are many different avenues for a bill to either become law or to be prevented from becoming law.

If there is legislation that you are interested in tracking, you can visit www.house.mn or www.senate.mn and use the bill search feature to track bills you may want to find out about. You can search legislation in a number of different ways, including bill number, author, topic, or committee jurisdiction.

As always if you have a question regarding a legislative issue, do not hesitate to contact the MSCSA state office at 651-297-5877.