Witness forms are used in committee to educate legislators about an issue and to demonstrate the level of support or opposition to the bill under consideration.  The more people who take time to submit witness forms, the more likely the legislators will take notice of the public's regard for the bill.

Completing a witness form is not an obligation for additional action.

Competition...

It's very hard to pass a bill. Only a small percentage of bills actually make it all the way through the process. For instance, in 2013 there were approximately 1508 bills filed in the House and Senate, besides the 18 budget bills. Only 118 of those bills actually became law, and that includes non-controversial bills like three that designated this or that awareness day.

So only about 7.7% of the filed bills actually made it all the way through.

Many of the bills of any consequence that make it have a special interest groups with deep pockets promoting them. There are sometimes several lobbyists working at the Capitol full time fighting for passage. The special interests often make hefty contributions which my not always “buy” votes, but they do buy the time and attention of legislators. We have to compete for that time and attention.

With so many bills to consider, legislators have to decide which bills are the most important to the most people. The squeaky wheel does get the grease, so we need to squeak as loud as possible, and testimony or witness forms make a lot of noise..

 

Hearings...

By law, every bill must have at least two pubic hearings before it can become a law -- one conducted by the House and another by the Senate. It's up to the committee chairman to decide how much time to devote to a bill and how much time each witness gets, but the People have to be given an opportunity to weigh in and anyone can participate.

To be an effective witness at a hearing you don't have to be a great speech maker and you certainly don't have to take much time. The most important thing you can do is to let the people who are supposed to be representing you know what you expect them to do. Usually just two or three minutes of comments are plenty, and then be prepared to answer any questions the committee might have. Dialog with committee members is usually the most productive part of your testimony and committee members are more likely to ask questions if your initial comments are short and to the point.

If you don't really want to make comments or answer questions, when it's your turn you can simply introduce yourself and say that you are for or against the bill.

Note that a personal appearance at a hearing is 10 times better than simply sending in a witness form, but sending in a witness form is 1000 times better than doing nothing at all!

 

What happens to your witness form...

If you go to a hearing in person, take your witness form with you, or fill out one of the blanks provided there, and turn it in to the committee secretary. (Usually you can just lay it on the table with the other witness forms.) You can submit a witness form without testifying at all, if you want.

If you fill out an online witness form through LibertyTools you can print a copy for yourself to take but we will also print it and present your witness form to the committee along with all the others filled out for the same bill. We will sort them by "for", "against" and "informational". You can choose to be for or against the bill and we will still present your witness form.

Note that witness forms become part of the permanent record. After the legislative session is over, they are taken to the state archive, along with notes and ledgers from the committee meetings.

When you fill out an online witness form through LibertyTools legislators can also view your written comments online. After the hearing, we email them a special link that lets them view the testimony on our Constituent's Voice page. They can sort by district, so they can see what the folks form back home think about the bill and they can even view a map showing what part of the state the witnesses come from. And if you give permission when you fill out your witness form, they can see your email and / or phone number, in case they have questions or comments for you.

Legislators will be able to see your full name, just like they can on the paper witness form, but anyone else viewing the page can only see the first name and last initial.

If you are emailed a custom link to a witness form -- one with your name in it -- use that link because it will compile an online record of your witness forms for future reference. It will even automatically fill out your name and address and any testimony you gave on a companion bill to the one your currently working on. If you provide your email address (optional), we'll email you a confirmation with a link that lets you print your witness form at a later date and another link that will let you edit your witness form right up to the time we print it. (One printed, the record is locked, so you can view it but not change anything.)

It's our goal to foster citizen participation in the legislative process and help to connect legislators with their constituents.

 

The Process...

To become a law, a bill has a long and arduous path to travel.

• Filed
• First Read in either the House or Senate
• Second Read
• Assign to Committee
• Public Hearing
• Debate and Amendment in Committee
• Vote whether to pass it out of the committee.
• Placed on the calendar for consideration by the whole body.
• The bill must work its way up to the “perfection calendar”.
• Debate, possible amendments, and “perfection” vote.
• Debate, 3rd read vote
  

Then it goes through the same process in the opposite chamber (House or Senate), including another public hearing.

If any changes are made to the bill, it has to go to a conference committee, where a few members of the House and Senate try to work out differences. Prior to the conference committee, the whole body has to vote whether or not to grant a conference with the other chamber.

If an agreement is struck, any changes to the bill have to be voted on by the whole body of the House and/or the Senate again.

Then the governor must either sign the bill or do nothing and let the bill become law without his signature.

If the governor vetoes the bill, it must go back to a vote of the House and Senate, but this time 2/3 of both bodies must vote to override the veto.