Calling The Roll: A Contrast

It was interesting to watch the righteous indignation from some Democrats today at Rep. John Burris failure to call for a roll call vote in the House Public Health Committee on SB134 – the Heartbeat Bill.  This is the third time the bill has come through the committee.  It was passed once, but came back for an amendment in order to make some concessions to gain support.

At one time, SB134 would have banned almost all abortions starting at around six weeks.  After numerous amendments, it will now ban some abortions after 12 weeks with numerous exceptions.  This is a normal part of the process to gain support from both sides on a bill. The lead sponsors, Sen. Jason Rapert and House sponsor Rep. Ann Clemmer, have done a good job working with everyone to put together the best bill possible.

Normally when a bill that has already been passed comes back through committee for some friendly amendments, it is customary to pass it on through.  But some of the pro-choice Democrats on the committee are bound and determined to use every parliamentary method to block.  They gleefully blocked it coming through committee again last week when they noticed a few of the bills supporters were absent.

When the bill came through for a second time today, Chairman Burris recognized Rep. Hammer as quickly as possible and did so before any committee member raised their hands to request a roll call. You can see in the video Burris does so shortly before Rep. Greg Leding raises his hand, followed by a couple other members.

It also appears this was planned.  You can see in the video below Rep. Hammer gets his stuff together to move to the head of the committee table and does so as soon as the chair rules the bill passed.  Burris immediately recognizes him as soon as he gets up to move which takes place without any delay.

Sneaky?  Yes. But also all within the rules.

However, seeking to be above board, Speaker Carter sent the bill back to committee for another vote where a roll call was called for and granted and where the bill passed with the 11 votes needed this afternoon.

I call a sharp contrast to the tricks Democrats used to consistently pull in committee when they had the majority.  Perhaps no greater example was the vote against a bill on domestic partnerships in the House City, County, and Local Committee in 2009.  The bill would have prohibited cities and counties from recognizing same-sex domestic partnerships, a practice taking place in Eureka Springs.

The Democratic-controlled committee wanted to kill the bill, but did not want to go on the record.  So when the motion to “do pass” came before the committee, the Democratic members voted no and then immediate got out and fled the room in mass, which as you can see in the video below was obviously planned. The Republican minority called for a roll call, but the chairman, Rep. Baker,  ruled that a quorum was not present so a roll call could not be called for.

Here is really where you see a contrast.  Unlike Speaker Carter, who sent the bill back today, then Democratic Speaker Robbie Wills took to his blog (now deleted) to defend Rep. Baker’s action and even complimented him on his skill and chastising those who dared complain.

Interesting note – the member calling for a roll call was freshman Rep. John Burris.

For a counterpoint of view, check out my collegue Michael Cook’s post here.