Assemblyman David G. McDonough (R,C,I-Merrick) and fellow members of the Assembly Minority conference today were joined at an Albany press conference by representatives of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law to call on the Assembly to make legislative reform the first order of business when it returns for its new session in January.

"The Brennan Center report, 'The New York State Legislative Process: An Evaluation and Blueprint for Reform,' ranked our state Legislature as the most dysfunctional and the least democratic in the nation," said Assemblyman McDonough. "Our state legislative process consistently ranked near or at the bottom of each assessed category, far more than the other 49 states and the U.S. Congress. We need to address these deficiencies in the upcoming legislative session to more fully include rank-and-file lawmakers and the citizens they represent in the legislative process."

"Since the release of the Brennan Center report in July, the people of New York state have been demanding an end to ‘business as usual’ in Albany," said Scott Schell, spokesperson for the Brennan Center. "We all know that bipartisan efforts are rarely seen in the Legislature, and by joining the push for reform, Assemblyman David McDonough and his minority conference collagues are saying to the people of New York that this reform effort is real, it’s gaining steam, and positive change is near at hand.

Assembly Minority have offered sweeping reforms to the Assembly rules at the beginning of each legislative cycle for the past decade. They have also said they will support the latest version of a resolution sponsored by Assemblyman Scott Stringer (D-NY) and 26 other Assembly majority members as a positive first step toward achieving reform.

In addition to these proposals, the Assembly Minority is advocating several measures that would move further toward achieving a more open, responsible, responsive state government and give greater voice to rank-and-file legislators.

Among the measures that the Assembly Minority conference has long championed are those to:

• Further open the "motion to discharge" procedure to allow for consideration of bills by the entire legislative body despite inaction on the committee level.
• Require that committee membership reflect the majority to minority membership ratio in the Assembly. Under the current formula, committee membership is calculated by determining the ratio of majority to minority members in the Assembly, and giving that ratio to the majority, plus any fractions, plus one additional member. For example, the Libraries Committee currently consists of eight Majority and one Minority member.
• Allow the ranking minority member on each committee to call for public hearings by the committee.
• Require that when a motion to hold a bill fails in committee, an immediate motion be made to report that bill.
• Create a "member’s prerogative" allowing each Assembly member to bring at least one bill of statewide implication to the floor for a vote during each legislative session.
• Require that the Rules Committee provide an agenda and that it convene regularly scheduled meetings, as is now done by the other committees.
• Require that bills with home rule requests from local municipalities be considered in committee at the first meeting that is held after the bill has been in committee for three days.
• Require a supermajority, or two-thirds, vote for final passage of all bills that impose, continue or revive taxes.
• Require that all bills on the calendar that impose a mandate on localities or school districts, as well as all bills that would require additional taxes, be specifically labeled or identified as such on the calendar.
• Enact various provisions to ensure timely passage of the state budget, including forbidding consideration of nonbudget bills after April 1 if a budget is not in place and the convening of budget conference committees no later than March 15 of each year to facilitate the process of finalizing a budget before the April 1 deadline.