Amendments to Finance, Miscellaneous Provisions Bills approved newsday.co.tt - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsday.co.tt Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
[co-author: Jessica Griswold]
Legislative Chess
It’s the time of year when the legislature plays chess. Sometimes it even plays speed chess, with programs, initiatives, and tax code changes flying in and out of bills as they move back and forth between chambers. Each chamber attempts to position its priorities to its best advantage, sometimes by holding the other chamber’s priorities as hostage.
A House committee may remove a section of a bill that its Senate counterpart spent months discussing. And vice versa. A committee may also attach one of these pieces to a different bill, using it as a “vehicle” to shore up its chances of survival. In non-COVID times, legislators play a version of three-dimensional chess, with players sitting on different floors in the Statehouse working their own individual chess boards.