Tea Party idea voted down: unruly Rules Committee

Conventional wisdom would suggest a Republican majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives would embrace some of the Tea Party-influenced Pledge to America.

One of those pledges called for posting proposed legislation on the Internet three days before it would be voted on so people could "read the bill."

But an interesting exchange in the House Rules Committee Jan. 24 had all Republicans of the committee voting against a proposal by a Democrat for posting bills online for three days, per the directive of the Pledge to America.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL, Brooklyn Center, proposed the amendment to the permanent rules of the House.

I supposed one could write this off to playing politics, but a vote is a vote. It's on the record. Why do I feel we haven't heard the last of this vote and this exchange. Seems ripe for campaign literature at some point.

It will be interesting to see how state Republicans would defend it, but a legitimate reason might be the Minnesota Republican Party has no real allegiance to the party in control of Congress.

Here's the exchange between Hilstrom and House Majority Leader Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, and the House Rules Committee chairman.

Said Hilstrom: "There will be no more hiding legislative language from the minority party from opponents and from the public. Given this is such a popular agenda. I believe that it’s proper to be in our rules as well. We do not want to hide it from the public or the minority, and so, Mr. Chair, I would ask for a roll call.” 

Dean asked for discussion. A deafening silence.

He asked for Discussion again. Nothing.

Dean, speaking against the amendement said: “I would echo representatives Hilstrom’s intent on this. I would say that is an excellent idea for our U.S. Congress, for 435 members, and for the predicament they find themselves in."

“However, we are at 134 members, we have a Minnesota way of doing things. We also have something we need to do in this state that they don’t have to do that I wish they had to do which is balance their budget.”

“And that requires us to do a  lot of heavy lifting in the last 48 hours of session in many instances, so I would speak against the Hilstrom amendment, and if there’s no further discussion I would ask the clerk take the roll.” 

The amendment was defeated 11-14 on a party line vote. Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, is the only Mankato area legislator on the Rules Committee.

Hilstrom's comments starts at 22 minutes, 30 seconds into the audio recording and the exchange goes for about two minutes.

Here are the meeting minutes. Scroll down to the vote on Amendment 20. All "Ayes" or yes votes favored putting bills online as in Pledge to America. Nays voted against putting bills online. All Democrats voted yes, and all Republicans voted no.