No to excuses, yes to second chances

2023-05-12

Dear friend,

Stand inside a big, pitch-dark room and poke a pinhole in it. The sunlight from outside will form a life-size image on the wall of the view through the hole.

This is what you see inside the famous roadside Giant Camera in San Francisco, California:

The Giant Camera is an example of a camera obscura, or room dark in Latin. Here's how to build one at home using a shoebox (it's easy and fun for kids!) along with an explanation of how it works. In the 1800s, the development of photo-sensitive chemistry meant that we could put a piece of paper inside the camera and form a picture.

Now we think of a "camera" as a tool that takes pictures, not a room. So I had no idea until I just looked it up why your Vermont Legislature is called a "bicameral" system. What’s the etymology for our federal and state legislatures with two camera? I wondered if the word bore some relation to a camel with two humps.

Nope, a "bicamel" is not a thing. Bicameral, however, as you might have guessed by now, means "two rooms." The Vermont General Assembly's two rooms, referred to more formally as chambers, are:

--The House of Representatives (where I show up for Windham-6 as one Representative out of 150)
--The Senate (where each Vermonter is in a district repped by two Senators, out of 30 total)

This is the same two-body division as that of the U.S. Congress:

--The House of Representatives (where Vermont has one Representative a.k.a. Congressperson, out of 435)
--The Senate (where Vermont has two Senators out of 100)

In my view, it's too bad that Vermont's founding fathers didn't pick different names from those chosen for the U.S. Congress.

One of the first things anyone running for Representative in Vermont has to explain whether they are running to be a Representative in State Legislature, or the U.S. Congress. (And that the State Legislature, though it has to run under the supports and requirements of federal laws, has a lot of scope independent of Congress.)

Some of the Representatives who voted "No" to S.39, the legislative pay bill (see A challenge and an offer), said that we should pay legislators the same amount of money but ask us to get the work done in 63% of the time, i.e. a 12-week session instead of 19 weeks.

Could we become that much more efficient and/or find that much less stuff to do?

As your Legislature prepares for adjournment, one could imagine your Legislature getting more work done in less time would to become unicameral.

Nebraska and territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands in the United States, and half of the world's sovereign nations, including the People's Republic of China, have one body in their legislatures.

A lot of the work your Vermont House and Senate are doing right now is:

--redundant to what the other body is doing
--ignoring what the other body sends over
--contradicting or thwarting what the other body sends over

And probably other forms of gross inefficiency. Should we merge them somehow, start with a fresh name (send your ideas), save money and time and do better work? Stop throwing to the side or skewing the work of the other body, and get it done?

In a way, going unicameral could be more democratic. The origins of our bicameral system are in British Houses of Parliament in 1341, when the nobility/clergy established what became the House of Lords, looking down upon the knights and burghers who formed the House of Commons.

Vermont's Legislature does not have a hierarchy between the two bodies, but in some ways the Senate is the "upper chamber." In two equal bodies, a Senator represents about five times as many Vermonters as a Rep, and has more sway as one in 30 vs one in 150. Vermont Senators sit on a morning and an afternoon committee, and so each legislator covers more ground than your Reps on one committee each.

If we got rid of one of the bodies, the remaining legislators would all be more like the Senate now. They would have more scope individually and less having to have another body check their work.

And that right there is why I wouldn't want to get rid of either of the bodies, not even the Senate, anytime soon.

SHHHHHHHH they're sleeeeeeeeeeping.

Some work should be done twice, from two different angles.

In my experience, most things get better with a second take, or with a teammate who has a different approach that you. Life is better with a partner. Not every time. Sometimes they frustrate you or feel like they're getting in your way. Sometimes you might even question their motivations.

It helps to have two bodies with two different demeanors. Historically, the Senate is considered the more deliberate body. Founding father James Madison said, "The use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with more system and with more wisdom, than the popular branch."

Sometimes this session I saw the House do a ton of work on a bill and send it over to the Senate, only to watch aghast as they gutted it or left it on the wall. I'm sure that from the other body's point of view, we did the same thing. In some cases we turned a cold shoulder to the other body's priorities, or met each other halfway on something. The two bodies, with the Governor's pen above us, balance and moderate the other's work.

If you like a policy, there's a lot of motivation for the House to pass a Senate bill with no amendments, or vice versa. However, it seems to be seldom done. We always seem to find a way to improve on the other's work.

Today, on adjournment day, we're finalizing the work of the session by squaring up our results with the results of the other body.

Soon I'll follow up on that work. Today the House is voting on important bills where we are compromising with the Senate:

--The state budget
--Childcare
--School safety

For example, one bill of interest to Windham-6 and all of Vermont this session has been H.183, a bill that asked for more accountability for public tuition dollars going to private institutions. (See Accountability for education dollars.)

I voted "Yes" on H.183, but the Senate is the land of second chances. As of today, that bill has stalled in the Senate. Just one provision, a moratorium on new independent schools receiving tuition, made it into a different bill.

Thanks for reading. How's it going with you?