Albany Democrats tightened their vice-like grip over New York’s legislative agenda Tuesday with a power play aimed at preventing debate on topics like bail reform.
The Democratic Assembly supermajority is now putting a strict limit on the number of times per year members can force committee votes on bills — a move that allows them to effectively block the vast majority of GOP-backed legislation without discussion.
“It’s not just the bills that actually get considered. It forces conversations,” said Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Valley Stream). “This is another way of centralizing power.”
The moved was introduced by Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo), a top lieutenant of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx).
Another change, also approved in a Monday resolution, effectively requires GOP lawmakers to attend legislative sessions — while allowing Democrats to vote yes by default.
Assembly members traditionally could force committee votes on bills by leveraging a parliamentary maneuver called a “99” — forcing chairs to hold votes before the end of the regularly scheduled legislative session in June.
Republicans have leveraged a 99, also known as a Motion to Discharge, in the past to force Democrats to state on the record their opposition to making more gun crimes bail-eligible, preventing parole for child murderers and making shooting at a “public safety officer” a Class B felony, among other bills.
“It basically holds us all accountable,” said Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-Staten Island), who has used the maneuver to get left-leaning Democrats to say on the record why they do not want judges to have more discretion to jail people pre-trial.
But GOP legislators are now limited to doing that just four times per year compared to the past when an individual member could theoretically make such a move on nearly 200 bills per year.
“This is all designed to reduce the number of Republican bills that they even have to look at and reduce the number of bills they have to explain why they’re not voting in favor of,” Assemblyman Andy Goodell (R-Jamestown), the GOP floor leader, said Tuesday.
Lawmakers from both parties have also leaned on the move in recent years as part of efforts to overcome committee chairs resisting bills ranging from a progressive push to expand public power last year to a 2019 GOP push to give “Gold Star families” more tuition assistance.
The timing of the rule change struck Republicans as suspicious considering how Assembly Democrats only began broadcasting committee meetings following years of criticism about a lack of transparency compared to the state Senate.
“Seems like a total coincidence that just weeks after the Assembly finally started streaming Committee meetings the Majority is passing a rules change to limit the ability of members to force committee consideration of their bills!” Ra tweeted Monday.
Republicans also expressed outrage they are also outraged over another change to Assembly rules that lets legislators skip sessions of the full chamber as long as they are OK with being listed as a yes vote unless a “slow roll call” is allowed in the chamber dominated by the Democratic supermajority.
Anyone who wants to vote against bills coming up for floor votes will have to physically come into the chamber per the change, which follows the December approval by Albany Democrats of a $32,000 pay bump that makes the $142,000 salary given to New York state lawmakers the highest in the nation.
“The new process is an affront to democracy. Members were elected by their constituents to listen to the debate and make an informed vote,” Goodell said.
“They give themselves this massive pay raise and then vote to have a no-show job,” he added.
A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D – who has boycotted questions from the New York Post for the past two weeks – did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the rule change.
