NewsOK
THE OKLAHOMAN EDITORIAL
Published: June 29, 2010
HOUSE Speaker Chris Benge is term-limited. His official duties ended with adjournment of the 2010 legislative session.
Not quite.
Benge still had to deal with requests for interim studies, a mainstay of legislative dalliance in which lawmakers continue coming to the state Capitol or other venues at taxpayer expense, in some cases because certain bills had too little support to pass but too much to ignore. One way to keep an issue alive is to study it!
Of 123 requests for interim studies, Benge approved 68 on a wide range of issues. Actually, 76 requests were approved — 62 percent of the total — but several were combined.
Sensitive to public perception, Benge noted that lawmakers on panels studying three or fewer issues will have only one day for the task. Those assigned four or five studies are limited to two days; those with six or more will get three... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Tue, June 29, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski