Cue the Charlie Brown Music
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Christmas is here. And apparently the Fourth of July, too.
It’s a common occurrence this time of the session for bills that flamed out to return as amendments to related bills. Legislators call these “Christmas Trees,” because you can hang just about anything on them. Today, there were finally fireworks in the House — as in, an actual bill about fireworks. It became an amendment/ornament on SB 11, the homeland security bill we’ve been watching for the last few days. The amendment clarified that local jurisdictions had the ability to limit the use and sale of fireworks during drought conditions — or at least, that’s what most of the debate was about.
But, wait, homeland security, you say? Rep. Carl Isett, standing in for Rep. Phil King, the amendment’s author, explained: “If a county has a real threat of, let’s say, a burn situation” during a drought, then the use of fireworks becomes “a disaster issue.” This was appropriate for the bill because it affects the “abilities of first responders and counties to address … either natural or man-made disasters.”
Once that was all cleared up, the amendment and the bill passed easily.
“We’re going to take this Christmas tree after we pass it, and we’re going to light it in the rotunda,” Rep. Frank Corte, the bill’s sponsor in the House, said in closing.
The relatively smooth sailing of most bills through third reading was pretty typical of the early part of the day. We’ll see how things go. Bring on the conference committees.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
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