Mary Beth Schneider has an article for the Indianapolis Star entitled 1,500 bills big and small vie for attention. She mentions that most bills will slip by without any kind of media attention. I don’t know that I’d call myself “media attention” but even this blog, with its focus on legislation and sometimes shotgun approach to coverage missed most of the ones she points out. The only one I paid real attention to was concerning a poet laureate. (I’m pleased to say that PSoTD was actually kind enough to pick up on that one.)
The other bills mentioned in Ms. Schneider’s article:
SB 301 and HB 1171 — Cheerleading safety;
HB 1238 and HB 1106 — Car headlights
HB 1091 — Anti-panhandling
SB 103 — Attendance officers in schools
HB 1474 — Yearbook photographers
HB 1276 — Animal treatment by chiropractors
HB 1365 and SB 208 — Pest control and groundhogs.
One thing it would be interesting to know is how much the volume of bills considered by the legislature changes with the technological ability to generate the volume. I know anectdotally from long-time LSA employees that the number of bills considered by the General Assembly has increased with computer technology. Cause and effect is a bit hard to determine, but how do you suppose the legislature would deal with 1,500 bills if each one had to be typed (or, going way back, hand-written maybe) along with each amendment, committee report, etc., etc. Oddly, our ability to process text may be increasing how regulated we are as a society.
Leave a Reply