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Allowing bills to be introduced and to begin to proceed through the Maine Legislature with only a title flies in the face of transparency and likely increases the public’s distrust of government.
Yet, so-called concept drafts, which are essentially bills introduced with only a title, have been used with increasing frequency in the Maine Legislature. We understand that sometimes a lawmaker wants or even needs to introduce a bill without having the expertise or time to draft the necessary language. Or legislative staff doesn’t have the time to complete this work before the deadline for submitting bills.
However, concept drafts have increasingly been used for legislation on large and sometimes controversial and contentious issues, which can leave advocates and others feeling like this process was used to hide the actual intent of the proposed legislation.
According to an analysis by Maine Public, more than a quarter of bills introduced in 2023 were placeholders or concept drafts. This was five times more than the totals in the past five legislative sessions.
This seems unnecessary and critics of the placeholder bill practice have been right to raise concerns.
Those concerns appear to have been heard. The Legislature’s Rules Committee began consideration last week of ways to restrict the use of concept drafts.
That’s a good start toward limiting their overuse.
As Bangor Daily News politics reporter Billy Kobin explained recently: “Scrutiny of concept drafts intensified in March after state Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, released the text of a hotly contested “shield bill” less than a week before its public hearing.” The proposal, which Democratic Gov. Janet Mills later signed into law, protects Maine medical providers who treat transgender and abortion patients from out-of-state from litigation or prosecution in other states. When it was introduced, the bill was simply called “An Act Regarding Health Care in the State” and contained no text.
Although we support protecting access to these types of health care, delaying the content of the bill fueled valid criticism of the perceived secrecy over the text of the bill, which was strongly opposed by many conservative and religious organizations.
Perry said she mistakenly thought the text of the bill would be available to the public sooner than it was. She now supports changes to limit the use of concept drafts.
One change discussed by the bipartisan committee last week would be to require that the full text of all bills be posted online at least a week before a public hearing is held.
Other changes the group discussed include limiting the number of bills each lawmaker could introduce each session and boosting the number of legislative staff tasked with reviewing, analyzing and summarizing the large number of amendments and proposals before legislative committees.
Rep. Jan Dodge, D-Belfast, proposed banning votes on bills between 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., to avoid late-night sessions and meetings that sometimes end with heated and controversial outcomes, and with little public oversight.
These proposals deserve much fuller scrutiny, but the suggestions to limit the use of concept drafts should be a priority for lawmakers.
